Time magazine designated the “Architects of AI” as their person of the year for 2025 on Thursday, referencing this year as the point at which the potential of artificial intelligence “roared into view” became irreversible.
TL;DR
- Time magazine named the "Architects of AI" as their 2025 Person of the Year.
- The designation recognizes individuals who imagined, designed, and built artificial intelligence.
- 2025 marked AI's irreversible shift into mainstream consumer lives and potential.
- Cover images featured tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman.
“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 publication intentionally chose individuals—the “individuals who imagined, designed, and built AI”—over the actual innovation, despite a potential history of doing so.
“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.
A different cover image depicts scaffolding encircling the colossal letters “AI”, designed to resemble computer hardware.
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.
The publication observed the presence of AI firm leaders at President Donald Trump’s inauguration this year on Capitol Hill, signaling the industry's growing significance.
“This was the year when artificial intelligence’s full potential roared into view, and when it became clear that there will be no turning back or opting out,” Jacobs wrote.
According to prediction markets, AI was a primary candidate for the highest position, alongside Huang and Altman. Pope Leo XIV, who became the first American pope this year after Pope Francis passed away, was also viewed as a potential candidate. Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani were also frequently listed.
Trump was named the 2024 person of the year by the publication following his triumph in his second campaign for The White House, taking over from Taylor Swift, who held the title 2023 person of the year.
The publication's choice originates from 1927, at which point its editorial staff has been selecting the individual they believe had the greatest influence on news coverage throughout the preceding year.
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This report was compiled with contributions from Associated Press journalists Matt O’Brien, based in Cupertino, California, and Kelvin Chan, reporting from London.
