As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into our lives, the need for new norms, encompassing both social conventions and formal regulation, becomes crucial. The task of developing such norms is challenging because the development of AI occurs at a much faster pace than the characteristic time of norm formation. Furthermore, this rapid speed makes it difficult to anticipate future scenarios. This paper examines the processes of norm formation surrounding AI from a complex systems perspective. Focusing on how new norms can be established, rather than on what these norms should be, it distinguishes different scenarios based on the centralisation or decentralisation of the norm formation process. In particular, the article highlights possible criticalities of the cases where new codes of behaviour are shaped by formal authorities, informal institutions, or emerge spontaneously in a bottom-up fashion. On the latter point, the paper reports a conversation that took place between the author and ChatGPT on May 22, 2023, in which the LLM discusses some of the emerging norms it has observed. Far from aiming at exhaustiveness, this article aims to offer readers some further interpretive tools to understand society's response to the growing pervasiveness of AI. The conclusion presents an outlook on how AI could influence the formation of future social norms and emphasises the importance for open societies to anchor their formal deliberation process in an open, inclusive, and transparent public discourse.
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