Artificial Intelligence and the Reconfiguration of Rational Action: A Grounded Model of Ethical and Social Dimensions

Abstract

This study aimed to sociologically explain how artificial intelligence reconfigures human rational action, with particular emphasis on its ethical, social, cognitive, and institutional dimensions. This qualitative study employed the Strauss and Corbin grounded theory approach. Participants comprised 20 artificial intelligence specialists, moral philosophers, social scientists, policymakers, and end users of AI, selected through theoretical and snowball sampling, with interviews continuing until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding. The analytical process generated 136 initial concepts, 54 subcategories, and 22 major themes, which were organized within a paradigmatic framework encompassing causal, contextual, and intervening conditions, action/interaction strategies, and consequences. The analysis identified “redefinition of human rational action in interaction with artificial intelligence” as the core category. Causal conditions comprised the transformation of AI from a supportive tool into a decision-making actor, the gap between technological capability and ethical-institutional preparedness, erosion of autonomous rationality through algorithmic dependence and opacity, and the emergence of AI as an ethical, social, and philosophical issue. Cultural-cognitive and organizational-institutional contexts, together with environmental pressures, shaped the rational adoption and use of AI. Rational governance and regulation, cognitive and social empowerment of users, concentration of technological power and digital inequality, and institutional opacity emerged as major intervening conditions. Principal strategies included preventive regulation, monitoring and accountability, education and awareness, interinstitutional collaboration, critical literacy enhancement, and preservation of human agency. Consequences encompassed the reconfiguration of cognitive capacities, transformation of social relationships, ethical and accountability challenges, and increased technological dependence accompanied by diminished human autonomy and agency. The influence of artificial intelligence on rational action is neither inherently beneficial nor inherently detrimental; rather, it depends on governance quality, algorithmic transparency, users’ critical literacy, institutional capacity, and preservation of meaningful human control over decision-making. Responsible AI development therefore requires the integration of ethical regulation, user empowerment, and safeguards for human autonomy and agency.