Large AI models are cultural and social technologies

Henry Farrell, Alison Gopnik, Cosma Shalizi, and James Evans, Large AI models are cultural and social technologies, Science, 13 Mar 2025, Vol 387, Issue 6739 pp. 1153-1156, DOI: 10.1126/science.adt9819

Abstract: Debates about artificial intelligence (AI) tend to revolve around whether large models are intelligent, autonomous agents. Some AI researchers and commentators speculate that we are on the cusp of creating agents with artificial general intelligence (AGI), a prospect anticipated with both elation and anxiety. There have also been extensive conversations about cultural and social consequences of large models, orbiting around two foci: immediate effects of these systems as they are currently used, and hypothetical futures when these systems turn into AGI agents—perhaps even superintelligent AGI agents. But this discourse about large models as intelligent agents is fundamentally misconceived. Combining ideas from social and behavioral sciences with computer science can help us to understand AI systems more accurately. Large models should not be viewed primarily as intelligent agents but as a new kind of cultural and social technology, allowing humans to take advantage of information other humans have accumulated.

Here's an ungated version.