Path dependency

Social mechanism through which technological, organizational or institutional decisions, once deemed rational but now subpar, still continue to influence decision-making. A mechanism maintained because of cognitive bias or because change would require too much money or effort. Such is the case for urban road infrastructure when it leads to traffic optimization programs, rather than considering a change to organize transportation with very low carbon emissions. This mechanism must be known when using AI for special projects, as training data in supervised learning can sometimes reinforce old organizational paradigms that are now contested.