「良知坎陷」觀念是當代新儒家牟宗三先生詮釋儒家「新外王」的代表性觀念，欲以此觀念開出新外王以銜接當代西方文明的挑戰。人工智慧的發展可謂當代科學中最高「技術」之象徵物，即今日儒家面對的挑戰已經不僅是科學，更是由科學延伸出的「科技」範疇；它雖屬於「技術」層次，然而其技術本質中的普遍性、無限性與不可知性，卻為儒學與科學的對話形成新的契機。本文嘗試運用海德格（Martin Heidegger）在“The Question Concerning Technology”一文中使用的「揭示」（revealing）與「帶出」（bringing-forth）等觀念，思考將AI的「技術」提升至「技術的本質（essence）」的理論位階，再透過「物」（技術）作為檢視「人」與「自然」關係的方法。具體而言，本文將解析「新外王」思想在當代高科技掛帥時代中二種可能的詮釋途徑：第一種即是透過牟先生所言的「良知坎陷」觀念，以「曲通」方式從良知主體落入認知心，再從認知心出發進入科技時代的「數據系統」。第二種則以AI象徵當代的高科技，再反思其「數據」的本質，透過海德格的理解方法使「數據系統」能朝向「存在系統」回歸。如此，即在高科技圍繞吾人生活的基礎上，反思從認知心重返無限心，從技術曲通與回歸本體，深入探索存在系統與數據系統之間互動的可能性。

The “negation of conscience” is an iconic idea of Mo Zong-san’s through which this contemporary new Confucian interprets the Confucian theory of “new outer kings” to face up to the challenge of contemporary western civilization. The development of artificial intelligence is the symbol of the highest techniques, that is, the challenge Confucianism face up to is not only science but also technology as the extension of science. Though categorized as “technique,” the technical universality, infinity and unknowability of technology creates a new opportunity for the dialogue between Confucianism and science. In this article, the writer tries to employ the ideas of “revealing” and “bringing-forth” from Martin Heidegger’s The Question Concerning Technology to contemplate how to upgrade the “technique” of artificial intelligence to the theoretical level of the “essence of technique” and then examine the relationship between “man” and “nature” through the method of “objects” (technique). To put it explicitly, this article is meant to analyze the two possible ways to interpret the philosophy of “new outer kings” in an age when technology is all the rage. First, we can fall from the conscientious subject to the cognitive mind in an “indirect” way through Mo Zong-san’s idea of the “negation of conscience,” and then, from the cognitive mind, enter the “data system” of the era of technology. Second, we can see artificial intelligence as the symbol of contemporary high technology and then reflect on the essence of “data,” returning the “data system” to the “existential system” through Heidegger’s method of understanding. That is, with our lives all surrounded by high technology, we can reflect on the possibility of returning from the cognitive mind to the infinite mind, from technical indirectness to the subject, exploring thoroughly the interaction between the existential system and the data system.