Social identities and the roles of artificial intelligence

We examine a key social concept in the field of social psychology—shared social identity, namely how a person identifies their membership of social groups to provide a sense of purpose and position in society—and relate that to the development of artificial intelligence systems that increasingly influence the nature of work and employment and knowledge of social and political systems. The presence and in-fluence of other people, and the effects of exposure to social information mediated by institutions, government and organisations, affects the sense of being similar to and also being able to differentiate oneself from other people. We examine developments in the digital world impacting upon the social and political values and actions of the individual, especially regarding the sharing of information and also the restriction of access to information for members of a group. We look at the roles of membership and leadership in forming and changing social identity.