Liangfei Qiu
Social technologies, such as social media, online communities, and prediction markets, have long been central to information technology research, demonstrating how social interaction, network structure, incentives, and platform design jointly shape individual behavior and collective outcomes. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in machine learning and generative models, are fundamentally altering the nature of social technologies. AI is no longer merely a background analytic tool. It is increasingly an active participant that mediates social interactions, reshapes incentives, and transforms institutional arrangements. This study synthesizes prior research on social technologies, with emphasis on sustained contributions examining social interaction, incentives, and market design. Building on this foundation, it articulates a coherent research agenda for the intersection of social technologies and AI across micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of analysis. We argue that future research must reconceptualize social technologies as adaptive, AI-mediated systems, and develop theories, methods, and designs that account for endogenous human-AI interaction.