{"paper":{"title":"Synthetic Sociality: How Generative Models Privatize the Social Fabric","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/","headline":"Generative models automate the production of social capacities called social doing, privatizing the social fabric.","cross_cats":["cs.GR","cs.LG"],"primary_cat":"cs.CY","authors_text":"Ana Dodik, Moira Weigel","submitted_at":"2026-05-13T20:19:24Z","abstract_excerpt":"We put forth a critical theoretical framework for analyzing generative models both descriptively and normatively. Our thesis is that generative models automate the production not only of intellectual labor or intelligence, but of a broader set of human social capacities we name \"social doing.\" We do this by historicizing the commodification of sociality in the digital economy, leading to the availability of social data as the precondition for generative models. We elaborate our definition of \"social doing\" by drawing a distinction between \"use\" and \"exchange\" sociality and further differentiat"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"Our thesis is that generative models automate the production not only of intellectual labor or intelligence, but of a broader set of human social capacities we name 'social doing.'","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"That the distinction between 'use' and 'exchange' sociality, drawn from prior critical theory, directly maps onto how people actually experience and are affected by generative model outputs without requiring new empirical validation.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"Generative models privatize social relations by automating social capacities into synthetic forms owned by private companies.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"Generative models automate the production of social capacities called social doing, privatizing the social fabric.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"bfe1036cdedf2d56dd33828f9cb4ac91405b3dafac151a2ecb49ac3042ebfeb8"},"source":{"id":"2605.14090","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":"5e71c943-fd3d-4f38-89e9-714bdf70cd27","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-15T01:53:52.059333Z","strongest_claim":"Our thesis is that generative models automate the production not only of intellectual labor or intelligence, but of a broader set of human social capacities we name 'social doing.'","one_line_summary":"Generative models privatize social relations by automating social capacities into synthetic forms owned by private companies.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"That the distinction between 'use' and 'exchange' sociality, drawn from prior critical theory, directly maps onto how people actually experience and are affected by generative model outputs without requiring new empirical validation.","pith_extraction_headline":"Generative models automate the production of social capacities called social doing, privatizing the social fabric."},"references":{"count":109,"sample":[{"doi":"","year":1938,"title":"Theodor W. Adorno. 1938. Über den Fetischcharakter in der Musik und die Regression des Hörens.Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung7 (1938), 29–60","work_id":"4454708a-b762-4f1d-913a-f94b03c2fe4e","ref_index":1,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"10.1080/10447318.2022.2150745","year":2024,"title":"Fayaz Ali, Qingyu Zhang, Muhammad Zubair Tauni, and Khuram Shahzad. 2024. Social Chatbot: My Friend in My Dis- tress.International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction40, 7 (2024), 1702–1712. https:/","work_id":"aba99397-a175-4c14-8c7f-a0b6745bc209","ref_index":2,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2025,"title":"Dani Anguiano. 2025. AI lovers grieve loss of ChatGPT’s old model: ‘Like saying goodbye to someone I know’.The Guardian(Aug. 2025). https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/22/ai-chatgpt-new-mo","work_id":"9622f6a2-cfa4-49d1-b4e1-a84688509aa3","ref_index":3,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":null,"title":"1832.On the Division of Mental Labour","work_id":"c6633939-4db1-4139-a485-4537063d630f","ref_index":4,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2025,"title":"Milena Batanova, Richard Weissbourd, and Joseph McIntyre. 2025. https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/loneliness-in-america-2024 16 Ana Dodik and Moira Weigel","work_id":"fa07baaf-d500-473b-8be7-51a35995fa8b","ref_index":5,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false}],"resolved_work":109,"snapshot_sha256":"86032664fc59f139da75d6aa861ec78a943492da6ed7fa84a2de1594dc57b1de","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":2,"snapshot_sha256":"94fcb0532578fc1c01b8c27fbcfcf7befd028f1e1fe737d8218dd5c3f4c26c87"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}