Responsible innovation ecosystems: Ethical implications of the application of the ecosystem concept to artificial intelligence

The concept of innovation ecosystems has become prominent due to its explanatory power. It offers a convincing account of innovation, explaining how and why innovation pathways change and evolve. It has been adopted to explain, predict, and steer innovation. The increasing importance of innovation for most aspects of human life calls for the inclusion of ethical and social rights aspects into the innovation ecosystems discourse. The current innovation ecosystems literature does not provide guidance on how the integration of ethical and social concerns into innovation ecosystems can be realised. One way to achieve this is to draw on the discussion of responsible research and innovation (RRI). This paper applies RRI to the innovation ecosystems discourse and proposes the concept of responsible innovation systems. It draws on the discussion of the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) to explore how responsible AI innovation ecosystems can be shaped and realised.