AI RESEARCH
The Proxy Presumption: From Semantic Embeddings to Valid Social Measures
arXiv CS.LG
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ArXi:2605.07409v1 Announce Type: cross Natural Language Processing is rapidly evolving into a primary instrument for Computational Social Science, with researchers increasingly using embeddings to measure latent constructs such as novelty, creativity, and bias. However, this transition faces a fundamental validity challenge: the ''Proxy Presumption,'' or the reliance on geometric properties (e.g., cosine distance) as direct measures of social concepts.