NEW YORK: Time magazine named the "Architects of AI" as its Person of the Year on Thursday, highlighting the US tech titans whose work on the cutting-edge technology is transforming humanity.
Nvidia's Jensen Huang, OpenAI's Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk are among the entrepreneurs who have "grabbed the wheel of history, developing technology and making decisions that are reshaping the information landscape, the climate, and our livelihoods," the magazine said.
"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 of the magazine is a take on the iconic "Lunch atop a Skyscraper" photograph from 1932 that shows ironworkers casually eating lunch on a steel beam above New York City.
In the Time illustration, Mark Zuckerberg, AMD chief Lisa Su, Musk, Huang, Altman as well as Google's AI chief Demis Hassabis, Anthropic's Dario Amodei and Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li are sitting astride the city.
According to the magazine, which is owned by Silicon Valley billionaire Marc Benioff, 2025 was the year AI shifted from promising technology to reality and when ChatGPT usage more than doubled to 10 per cent of the world's population.
"This is the single most impactful technology of our time," Huang told Time, predicting AI will grow the global economy from $100 trillion to $500 trillion.
The magazine also pointed to AI's darker side.
This year saw lawsuits alleging chatbots contributed to teen suicides and mental health crises, and job displacement looming as more companies raced to replace human workers.
The selection departs from the traditional single individual, instead honouring a collective of key figures behind the rapid development and deployment of AI technologies — underscoring how in 2025 the technology “roared into view” and became impossible to ignore.
Among those featured are Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and xAI’s Elon Musk, alongside other tech leaders credited with pushing artificial intelligence from niche innovation toward pervasive global force. They are described by Time as the people who “grabbed the wheel of history,” influencing industries, government policy and economic growth.
The cover imagery, one of two released with the announcement, echoes the iconic Lunch atop a Skyscraper photograph, placing these figures metaphorically high above a changing world.
Time editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs said the group was chosen for “delivering the age of thinking machines, for wowing and worrying humanity, for transforming the present and transcending the possible.” The decision reflects AI’s pervasive influence across sectors ranging from medicine and defence to culture and labour markets.
The magazine’s coverage also acknowledges growing concerns over AI, including ethical challenges, public safety issues and legal disputes tied to AI interactions.
Last year’s Person of the Year was Donald Trump, and other contenders this year reportedly included high-profile global figures such as Pope Leo XIV and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. - AFP
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