In this chapter we present a broad overview of research on what we call the politics of automated systems of governing (ASG). We define such systems as the enlisting of algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and various utilizations of so called ‘big data’ with the purpose to control, direct, steer or guide something or someone. Drawing on selective parts of a larger systematic review of 1667 peer-reviewed scholarly works dealing with politics in relation to big data, AI and algorithms, we illustrate two things. First, by taking stock of this literature we show its context as we reconstruct seven major themes from a wide range of topics through which scholars investigate ASG. Second, we theorize how the notion of politics can be said to operate along three dimensions as researchers mobilize the concept in relation to ASG across the seven themes, namely politics as ontology, epistemology and ideology.