‘Architects of AI’ named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year

Time magazine's 2025 Person of the Year is not just one person.

Instead, the magazine recognized the year's most influential figures as the “architects” of artificial intelligence (AI).

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, X owner Elon Musk and AI Godmother Fei-Fei Li are among those featured on one of the magazine's two covers.

Experts say this highlights how fast A.I. and the companies behind it are changing society.

This comes amid an ongoing technology boom that began with the launch of OpenAI ChatGPT in late 2022.

Its chief executive, Sam Altman, said in September that about 800 million people use its chatbot every week.

Big tech companies are pouring billions of dollars into artificial intelligence and the infrastructure behind it in an effort to stay ahead of the competition.

This year there are two covers: one is a piece of art depicting the letters AI surrounded by workers, and the other is a painting dedicated to the technology leaders themselves.

At Meta, Zuckerberg is reported to be focusing the firm's focus on this technology, including an artificial intelligence chatbot that he has built into his popular apps.

He, along with Huang, Musk, Li and Altman, appeared on the cover along with Lisa Su, an executive at chip maker AMD, Anthropic chief Dario Amodei and Google artificial intelligence lab head Sir Demis Hassabis.

“This year, the debate over how to use AI responsibly has given way to a rush to deploy it as quickly as possible,” Time said in announcing its new covers.

“But the risk-averse are no longer in charge.

“Thanks to Huang, Sohn, Altman and other titans of artificial intelligence, humanity is now hurtling down the highway, without brakes or gas, toward a highly automated and highly uncertain future.”

And the magazine's editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs said that “no one” will have as big an impact in 2025 as “the people who imagined, designed and created AI.”

“Humanity will shape the path of AI, and each of us can play a role in defining the structure and future of AI,” he said.

Forrester analyst Thomas Hasson said 2025 could be seen as a “tipping point” in how much AI is now used in our daily lives.

“Most consumers use it without even knowing it,” he told the BBC.

He said artificial intelligence is now being implemented into hardware, software and services, meaning its adoption is “much faster than during the internet or mobile revolutions.”

Some people now prefer chatbots to search engines and social networks to plan a vacation, find christmas gifts And discover recipes.

Others, such as those concerned about energy consumption, training data and the impact on their livelihoods, opt out entirely.

Nick Kyrinos, founder and chief executive of Fountech AI Lab, said the covers represent an “honest assessment” of the technology's impact, but he believes “acceptance should not be confused with willingness.”

“For now, AI can still be the savior or the bane of humanity,” he said.

“We are still in the early stages of creating artificial intelligence systems that are reliable, accountable and consistent with human values.

“Those of us who develop technology and bring artificial intelligence tools to market have a huge responsibility.”

This is not the first time the Person of the Year award has been given to a large group of people: in 2014, it was awarded to Ebola fighters, and in 2002, to whistleblowers.

He had previously acknowledged the computer in 1982, and the magazine said Americans had a “dizzying passion” for the device.

Time called it “partly a fad” but said it was also “partly a sense of how life can be made better.”

The computer was represented by a number of technology entrepreneurs of the time, including Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and IBM President John Opel.

Then, in 2006, “You” was named Person of the Year to represent the power of people on the Internet.

Wikipedia authors, early YouTubers, and MySpace users have been cited as examples of how “the many wrest power from the few and help each other for nothing.”

He continued: “Not only will it change the world, but it will change the way the world changes.”