The Architects of AI: TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year
The individuals who pioneered and propelled the age of artificial intelligence have been named TIME’s Person of the Year for 2025, a recognition of the year AI’s potential “roared into view” and fundamentally altered the trajectory of modern life.
TIME’s selection honors not a single person, but the collective force of those who “imagined, designed, and built AI,” marking a deliberate choice to recognize the creators behind the transformative technology rather than the technology itself. The magazine has previously extended the honor to groups, concepts like the endangered Earth in 1988, and even the personal computer in 1982, acknowledging that defining moments often stem from collaborative efforts.
The decision reflects a pivotal year for the technology, as artificial intelligence shifted from a niche exploration to a mainstream reality. According to a principal analyst at Forrester, 2025 was the year “a critical mass of consumers see it as part of their mainstream lives.” This widespread adoption was underscored by the visible presence of AI company CEOs at the inauguration of President Donald Trump earlier in the year, signaling the sector’s growing prominence.
TIME unveiled two striking cover images to accompany the announcement. One reimagines the iconic “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” photograph, featuring eight prominent tech leaders perched on a beam: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis of Google’s DeepMind, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, founder of World Labs. The second cover depicts scaffolding surrounding giant letters spelling “AI,” constructed to resemble computer componentry.
“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 declared in a social media post. The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Sam Jacobs, wrote that “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.”
The selection of the “Architects of AI” wasn’t a foregone conclusion. Prediction markets identified Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as strong contenders, while Pope Leo XIV – the first American pope elected following the death of Pope Francis – also garnered significant attention. Other names circulating included former President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Trump was previously recognized as TIME’s 2024 Person of the Year after securing a second term in the White House, succeeding Taylor Swift, who held the title in 2023.
TIME’s tradition of naming a Person of the Year dates back to 1927, recognizing the individual or entity that most shaped the news over the preceding 12 months. This year’s choice underscores the profound and irreversible impact artificial intelligence is having on the world, solidifying its place as a defining force of the 21st century.
Associated Press writers Matt O’Brien in Cupertino, California, and Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this article.
