[jackchristopher]

Yeah, the first AI would pass the Turing test by insulting the researchers. :)

But seriously, depending on what you mean by AI (general or narrow), you're right. If it was interacting in a realistic social way with humans, it'd have to understand "status".

Actually, I know of some people working on AGI that are aware of the "status" concept. Although they seem to conflate the improv meaning with general social status. On Less Wrong.com they talk about it from time to time.