Artificial intelligence (AI) marks an era in systems science when digital technologies are transforming big data-driven knowledge production and their applications toward public policy and governance including health care innovation, be they in internal medicine, surgery, biotechnology, or public health. The anticipations for an increase in throughput and efficiency of science and medicine are also accompanied by political and moral corollaries of AI. There is a need to explore and better understand the role of AI within the conceptual frames of the information society, knowledge society, and innovation ecosystems, as well as governance guided by critical policy studies. This article reviews and explores the political and normative implications of AI for a systems science audience and in relation to AI’s generative nature, which can redirect human behavior and, to a certain extent, shape societies, not to mention cultures and practices in science and innovation ecosystems in the 21st century.
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