The names of the tech leaders revamping society at an unprecedented rate are listed on the list of the architects of artificial intelligence, as Time Magazine has in its opinion piece about the Person of the Year of 2025. Instead of focusing on a single person, the magazine has emphasized the combined influence of executives, engineers, and innovators who have led to the high rate of AI technology implementation.
The cover includes Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta leader Mark Zuckerberg, X owner Elon Musk, AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, OpenAI founder Sam Altman, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Anthropic leader Dario Amodei, and Google AI head Sir Demis Hassabis. This choice highlights the role AI has played in recent years, especially since the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in late 2022, as a disruptive technology across everything, including people’s everyday habits and the overall business strategies of major corporations. According to OpenAI, the chatbot is now used by approximately 800 million people per week, demonstrating that its adoption rate is truly impressive.
Two covers were made by Time this year. One of them is an artwork featuring the letters AI in the middle of workers, and the other, based on the famous Lunch atop a Skyscraper photograph, places the tech executives in place of the ironworkers. The symbolism of the images is of how these figures are building the structures that will rule the automated future.
At Meta, Zuckerberg has oriented the company toward AI projects, including adding chatbots to its applications. In the meantime, Huang, Musk, Li, Altman, and other leaders on the cover are the voices of the firms and people who invested in AI infrastructure to bring the technology closer to people.
According to Time, the discussion of how to use AI responsibly was replaced this year by a race to implement it as quickly as possible. However, the risk-averse have lost their place in the driver’s seat. Due to Huang, Son, Altman, and other AI giants, man now drives down the highway, without brakes, towards a highly automated and highly unpredictable future.
The editor in chief, Sam Jacobs, also wrote that no single person will have greater influence in 2025 than those who imagined, designed, and created AI but noted that society as a whole will determine the path the technology will take. Jacobs said that humanity will define the future of AI and that every person can play a role in shaping its structure and future.
Experts and analysts predict that 2025 will be a turning point in AI adoption. According to Forrester analyst Thomas Husson, the year was a tipping point for the introduction of AI into day-to-day life, with consumers often engaging with it without even noticing. Planning holidays, finding recipes, and other tasks previously done by humans are now part of AI-based software, hardware, and Internet-based services more rapidly than the Internet or mobile revolutions.
The swift emergence of the technology has, however, raised concern. The issues of energy use, training information, and their effects on jobs have led some users to withdraw altogether. Originator and chief executive officer of Fountech AI, Nik Kairinos, described the recognition as a sincere evaluation of AI’s power, though it should not be confused with preparedness. At this point, AI, he said, can be a saviour or a scourge to humanity. We are yet to develop AI systems that are reliable, responsible, and consistent with human values. It is an enormous responsibility for those who are creating the technology.
The decision made by Time has followed the magazine’s tradition of identifying a group or even a movement whose overall contribution is greater than that of a single person. Other examples provided in the past include the Ebola responders in 2014, the whistleblowers in 2002 and 1982, and the computer industry, including entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and IBM president John Opel. A case in point is in 2006, Person of the Year was awarded to you, who is symbolic of millions of content creators working online worldwide.
Time also heralds the massive impact of AI on the world economy, society, and everyday life by mentioning the creators of AI. It is a reminder of the possibility, as well as the danger, of the tools being developed today, reminding both the general population and policymakers that, even though the developers of AI are defining the future, humanity as a whole will determine its final direction.
