The Sextuple Helix Innovation Model: Positioning Generative AI as an Epistemic Agent in Creative and Sustainable Knowledge Economies

This paper introduces the Sextuple Helix Innovation Model as an extension of the Quintuple Helix Innovation Model by Carayannis and Campbell. The epistemic perspective considers the understanding of generative AI (GenAI) as a sixth helix of knowledge production in sustainable innovation ecosystems. Accordingly, the knowledge economy of GenAI will be discussed in the context of the innovation processes of cultural and creative industries. While GenAI is largely described in social discourses as a disruptive tool that potentially replaces human creativity and thus destroys jobs, this paper discusses GenAI as an entity with a specific knowledge economy that contributes to creative innovation processes in exchange with the five established helices of science, politics, economy, the media- and culture-based public, and the natural environment of societies. With the help of a scoping review, a comprehensive evaluation of academic literature from the fields of creative industries, cultural policy, and innovation research, based on a constructivist epistemological approach and knowledge economy theory, confirmed that the positioning of GenAI as an epistemic actor in the Sextuple Helix Innovation Model reframes and redefines discourses beyond the prevailing narratives of disruption and regulation.