Is Attention All You Need? Toward a Conceptual Model for Social Awareness in Large Language Models

Abstract

Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing the landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI) due to recent technological breakthroughs. Their remarkable success in aiding various Software Engineering (SE) tasks through AI-powered tools and assistants has led to the integration of LLMs as active contributors within development teams, ushering in novel modes of communication and collaboration. However, great power comes with great responsibility: ensuring that these models meet fundamental ethical principles such as fairness is still an open challenge. In this light, our vision paper analyzes the existing body of knowledge to propose a conceptual model designed to frame ethical, social, and cultural considerations that researchers and practitioners should consider when defining, employing, and validating LLM-based approaches for software engineering tasks.