new york – Time magazine on Thursday named the “Architect of AI” its Person of the Year, highlighting the American tech giant whose cutting-edge artificial intelligence research is transforming humanity.
Nvidia's Jensen Huang, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and xAI's Elon Musk are among the innovators who have “seized the wheel of history, developing technologies and making decisions that reshape the information landscape, the climate, and our lives,” Time wrote.
The magazine's cover pays homage to the famous 1932 photo of ironworkers casually having lunch on a steel beam above New York City. In the Time illustration, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, AMD chief Lisa Su, Musk, Huang, Altman, Google's head of AI Demis Hassabis, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, and Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li sit across the street.
The magazine said of the group, “They have worked alongside and against each other to stake billions of dollars on one of the largest physical infrastructure projects in history.” “They have changed the direction of government policy, changed geopolitical conflicts, and brought robots into our homes. AI has emerged as the most important tool in great power competition since perhaps the advent of nuclear weapons.”
AI goes from promise to reality
According to the magazine, owned by Silicon Valley billionaire Marc Benioff, 2025 was the year that AI moved from promise to reality. ChatGPT usage has more than doubled this year, reaching 10% of the world's population.
“This is the most impactful technology of our time,” Huang, CEO of chipmaker Nvidia, the world's most valuable company, told Time. He predicted that AI would eventually grow the global economy from $100 trillion to $500 trillion.
Alongside popular AI models like ChatGPT and Claude, Time credited investors like SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who has invested billions of dollars into the technology.
Time Magazine's Person of the Year recognizes the most influential person of the year. Last year's title went to President-elect Donald Trump. Previous winners include singer Taylor Swift and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.
The dark side of the AI revolution
However, the magazine also pointed out some troubling aspects of AI. The lawsuit alleges that chatbots have contributed to suicides and mental health crises, sparking debate about “chatbot psychosis” in which users can develop delusions and paranoia.
In one case, the parents of 16-year-old Adam Lane from California are suing OpenAI after he committed suicide. They claim that ChatGPT provided information on suicide methods.
Time magazine also noted looming job losses as more companies race to replace workers with AI models.
Despite its AI theme, the magazine avoided using artificial intelligence to generate its cover art, opting instead for human artists.
Thomas Hudson, principal analyst at research firm Forrester, said the “Person of the Year” selection accurately reflects the huge impact of AI this year.
“AI is at the center of economic gravity in 2025 and is a source of endless debate about how it will shape the future of our society,” he said in a statement.
Also read: WTO: AI could boost global trade by 40%
