A Guide to the Theory of Appropriateness Papers

• AI News Team
• March 30, 2026

​This post is a living index of papers in the “theory of appropriateness” sequence. The sequence develops a computational account of normative appropriateness—the idea that much of human cognition and social behavior can be understood as pattern completion over culturally learned expectations of what is appropriate in a given situation. The papers span the cognitive and social sciences and generate implications for AI technology governance. I’ll update this post as new papers appear.The full treatmentThe sequence began with a long (100+ page) paper covering the full range of topics:Leibo, J.Z., Vezhnevets, A.S., Diaz, M., Agapiou, J.P., Cunningham, W.A., Sunehag, P., Haas, J., Koster, R., Duéñez-Guzmán, E.A., Isaac, W.S., Piliouras, G., Bileschi, S.M., Rahwan, I., Osindero, S. A theory of appropriateness with applications to generative artificial intelligence (2024). arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.19010 [cs.AI].Note that it is not necessary to read the long general paper before moving on to the others on specific subtopics. All papers in the sequence are self contained. Humans (cognitive and social science)These papers focus on the theory of human behavior:Leibo, J.Z., Vezhnevets, A.S., Diaz, M., Agapiou, J.P., Cunningham, W.A., Sunehag, P., Cross, L., Koster, R., Bileschi, S.M., Chang, M., Rahwan, I., Osindero, S., and Evans, J.A. A Theory of Appropriateness That Accounts for Norms of Rationality (2026). arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.14050 [cs.NE].Cross, L., Grau-Moya, J., Cunningham, W.A., Vezhnevets, A.S. and Leibo, J.Z. A Generative Model of Conspicuous Consumption and Status Signaling (2026). arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.13220 [cs.MA].Machines (technology governance)These papers apply the framework to questions about AI systems—personhood, alignment, and how we may conceptualize sociotechnical progress. Pragmatism, in the sense of Richard Rorty, is a major theme of this work:Leibo, J.Z., Vezhnevets, A.S., Cunningham, W.A. and Bileschi, S.M. A Pragmatic View of AI Personhood (2025). arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.26396 [cs.AI].Leibo, J.Z., Vezhnevets, A.S., Cunningham, W.A., Krier, S., Diaz, M. and Osindero, S. Societal and technological progress as sewing an ever-growing, ever-changing, patchy, and polychrome quilt (2025). arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.05197 [cs.AI].Discuss ​Read More