Time Magazine Names Architects of AI as 2025 Person of the Year

'Architects of AI' named Time Magazine's Person of the Year

Big tech firms are pouring billions of dollars into AI and the infrastructure behind it in a bid to stay ahead of rivals. Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said 2025 could be seen as a "tipping point" for how frequently AI is now used in our day-to-day lives. "Most consumers use it without even being aware of it," he told the BBC. He said AI is now being crammed into hardware, software and services - meaning it its uptake is "much faster than during the Internet or mobile revolutions". Some people now choose chatbots over search engines and social media to plan holidays, find Christmas gifts and discover recipes. Others, such as those worried about its energy use, training data and impact on their livelihoods, are opting-out entirely. Nik Kairinos, founder and chief executive of lab Fountech AI, said the honour was "an honest assessment" of the tech's influence, but he felt "recognition should not be confused with readiness". "At this moment, AI can still be a saviour or scourge to humanity," he said. "We are still in the early stages of building AI systems that are dependable, accountable, and aligned with human values. "For those of us developing the technology and bringing AI tools to market, there is huge responsibility."

Time names "the Architects of AI" Person of the Year

Time's logo outside the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. (Donald King/AP) Time magazine named "the Architects of AI" the 2025 person of the year. In announcing the choice Thursday morning, Time editor in chief Sam Jacobs stressed the ubiquity of AI technology and its usefulness in medical fields and hurricane modeling, as well as its "trade-offs" -- its huge energy requirements, its ability to create and spread realistic-seeming misinformation, and the fact that the control of the new technology is concentrated in the hands of a few billionaires.

The Architects of AI Are TIME's 2025 Person of the Year

The CEO of Nvidia enters a cavernous ­studio at the company's Bay Area headquarters and hunches over a table, his head bowed. At 62, the world's eighth richest man is compact, polished, and known among colleagues for his quick temper as well as his visionary leadership. Right now, he looks exhausted. As he stands silently, it's hard to know if he's about to erupt or collapse. Then someone puts on a Spotify playlist and the stirring chords of Aerosmith's "Dream On" fill the room. Huang puts on his trademark black leather jacket and appears to transform, donning not just the uniform, but also the body language and optimism befitting one of the foremost leaders of the artificial intelligence revolution.

Time Unveils Its 2025 Person of the Year: A Group Dubbed 'Architects of AI'

The magazine is recognizing how artificial intelligence is influencing our lives, for better or for worse. This year artificial intelligence stopped being all about the future and roared into the present. Time announced exclusively on TODAY Dec. 11 that it has recognized AI's seismic impact by naming the "Architects of AI" as its 2025 Person of the Year. The recognition reflects how the technology seemingly became inescapable this year in just about any aspect of American life, from its impact on education to fears of mass industry disruption. In its cover story, Time recognized the people who are building, designing and shaping AI, including the big names evangelizing for the technology and those behind the scenes responsible for its creation. The magazine also examined the tension between those looking to push AI forward and the many everyday people who have fears about AI's potentially widespread harmful effects. "Every industry needs it, every company uses it, and every nation needs to build it," Nvidia's Jensen Huang told Time. "This is the single most impactful technology of our time." There are two different Time covers this year, both illustrated and featuring prominent tech and AI leaders. Time creative director D.W. Pine explained that the two artists "each created an image that speaks to the duality AI has produced -- man vs. machine." Time's Person of the Year -- which is not an award of honor, but an observance of a figure who had the most influence on the events of the year, for better or for worse -- has previously recognized aspects of the tech revolution. In 1982, the magazine dubbed "The Computer" its Person of the Year, or more aptly, Machine of the Year, marking the first time an inanimate object was recognized. The award represented how personal computers began to find their way into millions of American homes. Then in 2006, Time named "You" as Person of the Year as the World Wide Web accelerated connection around the globe and content creators began to rise. The "Architects of AI" follow Time's 2024 Person of the Year, President Donald Trump, who also plays a sizable role in the AI conversation. The day after his inauguration in January, Trump and tech luminaries like Open AI's Sam Altman and Oracle's Larry Ellison announced the Stargate Project at the White House. With the project, they pledged up to $500 billion to build AI data centers around the country. Funders and technology partners of the newly created company include some of AI's biggest names -- SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia and Microsoft. With Time's first cover for 2025 Person of the Year, digital painter Jason Seiler nods to the famous "Lunch atop a Skyscraper" photograph from 1932, this time depicting the following tech leaders: With its second cover, illustrator and graphics animator Peter Crowther creates a structure covered in scaffolding, with the following figures pictured within: Time has named a Person of the Year every year since 1927, from historic world leaders to cultural figures. In 2023, Taylor Swift became the first Person of the Year to be recognized for her success in the arts. This isn't the first time that a group of people has been named Person of the Year. In 2018, "The Guardians" earned the distinction. It recognized journalists who faced murder or persecution for their reporting, including the late Jamal Kashoggi and Rappler editor Maria Ressa. A year earlier, Time spotlighted "The Silence Breakers," the women who came forward to share stories of sexual abuse and harassment as part of the #MeToo movement. Time has also previously designated prominent technology leaders as Person of the Year, including Tesla's Elon Musk in 2021 and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg in 2010. Time's 2025 Person of the Year issue is now live on Time.com. Physical copies will be available Dec. 19 on newsstands and on The Magazine Shop.

Time's 2025 Person Of The Year Is...

Time magazine named "The Architects of AI" as its 2025 Person of the Year. "Racing both beside and against each other, they placed multibillion-dollar bets on one of the biggest physical infrastructure projects of all time," Charlie Campbell, Andrew R. Chow and Billy Perrigo wrote in the cover story on the AI leaders. "They reoriented government policy, altered geopolitical rivalries, and brought robots into homes. AI emerged as arguably the most consequential tool in great-power competition since the advent of nuclear weapons." One of two covers for the magazine's annual honor features an illustration of tech leaders like Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and more sitting on a beam, a reference to the famous "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" photo.

Time magazine names 'Architects of AI' as its person of the year for 2025

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK -- The "Architects of AI" were named Time magazine's person of the year for 2025 on Thursday. The magazine cited 2025 as the year when the potential of artificial intelligence "roared into view" with no turning back. "For delivering the age of thinking machines, for wowing and worrying humanity, for transforming the present and transcending the possible, the Architects of AI are TIME's 2025 Person of the Year," Time said in a social media post. The magazine was deliberate in selecting people -- the "individuals who imagined, designed, and built AI" -- rather than the technology itself, though there would have been some precedent for that. "We've named not just individuals but also groups, more women than our founders could have imagined (though still not enough), and, on rare occasions, a concept: the endangered Earth, in 1988, or the personal computer, in 1982," wrote Sam Jacobs, the editor-in-chief, in an explanation of the choice. "The drama surrounding the selection of the PC over Apple's Steve Jobs later became the stuff of books and a movie." One of the cover images resembling the "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" photograph from the 1930s shows eight tech leaders sitting on the beam: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the CEO of Google's DeepMind division Demis Hassabis, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, who launched her own startup World Labs last year. Another cover image shows scaffolding surrounding the giant letters "AI" made to look like computer componentry. It made sense for Time to anoint AI because 2025 was the year that it shifted from "a novel technology explored by early adopters to one where a critical mass of consumers see it as part of their mainstream lives," Thomas Husson, principal analyst at research firm Forrester, said by email. AI was a leading contender for the top slot, according to prediction markets, along with Huang and Altman. Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope whose election this year followed the death of Pope Francis, was also considered a contender, with President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani topping lists as well. Trump was named the 2024 person of the year by the magazine after his winning his second bid for the White House, succeeding Taylor Swift, who was the 2023 person of the year. The magazine's selection dates from 1927, when its editors have picked the person they say most shaped headlines over the previous 12 months.

Architects of AI named Time's 'Person of the Year'

NEW YORK, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Time magazine named the architects of artificial intelligence its "Person of the Year" on Thursday, citing their ability to deliver the age of thinking machines with transformative technology. "Person of the Year is a powerful way to focus the world's attention on the people that shape our lives. And this year, no one had a greater impact than the individuals who imagined, designed, and built AI," Time Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs wrote in a letter to readers. Jacobs described the architects as "wowing and worrying humanity" and "transforming the present and transcending the possible." The 2025 "Person of the Year" issue features a cover story that explores how AI changed the world over the year in new and "sometimes frightening ways." It includes interviews with Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang, whose chips are powering the AI boom, and AI investors such as SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. It explores such troubling aspects of AI as the death of a 16-year-old Californian who committed suicide, after which his parents sued ChatGPT maker OpenAI, blaming the company for their son's death because of conversations he had with the chatbot. Time is among many media outlets partnering with AI firms to license content and develop new tools. In June 2024 it signed a multi-year content deal with OpenAI that gave the ChatGPT maker access to its archived news content. In response to user queries, the chatbot cites and links back to the source on Time.com. Time magazine named then-President-elect Donald Trump "Person of the Year" in 2024, as well as in 2016. Past winners have also included pop star Taylor Swift, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk. (Reporting by Helen Coster; editing by Donna Bryson)