What are social constructs and how do they apply to AI?

By Michael Alan Prestwood

Author and Natural Philosopher

10 Oct 2024

Published 1 year ago.

Updated 1 month ago.

Speed: 1.00

What are social constructs and how do they apply to AI?

Social constructs are human made. They do not exist in nature. While we can simply add AI to the mess of current social constructs, we do have an opportunity to forge a better tomorrow. AI has the power to reinforce our existing biases and bad habits, or help us rid society of them.

So, why discuss social constructs with AI? Because applying old frameworks uncritically can amplify biases or create new problems. But social constructs are not set in stone. We made them, so we can change them. This means we have a unique chance to define AI’s role in society. Should it be a tool, a partner, or something entirely new? The relationship is ours to shape. We get to decide how to build our future with AI, we must evolve our social constructs to ensure they serve us all.

Here's the key idea. Social constructs are human-made rules, and AI will either inherit their flaws or help us outgrow them.

Here is the core takeaway. Every major technology—from writing to printing to the internet—forced society to renegotiate its social rules. AI is no different, except faster. The danger isn’t that AI will reshape society. It’s that we’ll let it do so using assumptions we never bothered to examine.

That Critical Thinking FAQ,

was first published on TST 1 year ago.

By the way, the flashcard inspired by it is this.

Front: What term describes rules or ideas created by human agreement rather than nature?

Back: Social contruct

All this is part of the broader TST project.

Tidbits are written to stand alone, but they are also designed to interlock—forming a research layer that supports deeper synthesis.

Each weekly edition of the TST Weekly Column consists of a central column supported by a research layer of stories, quotes, timelines, and FAQs.

The end!