NEW YORK, NY — Artificial intelligence did not just advance in 2025 — it broke through, and TIME Magazine says the people who built it now stand as the most powerful influence on the planet.
On Saturday, TIME named The Architects of AI as its 2025 Person of the Year, marking a rare shift away from honoring a single individual to recognizing a collective force that has fundamentally altered how the world works, thinks, and decides. From boardrooms to battlefields, classrooms to courtrooms, AI moved from theoretical promise to unavoidable reality.
In a letter to readers, TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs described 2025 as the moment when artificial intelligence’s momentum became irreversible. He wrote that this was the year AI’s full potential “roared into view,” eliminating any illusion that society could opt out of its rise. According to Jacobs, no group exerted more influence than the individuals who imagined, designed, and built the systems now reshaping daily life.
For that reason, TIME chose to honor what Jacobs called both a marvel and a menace — a technological force that has dazzled, disrupted, and unsettled humanity all at once. The magazine credits the Architects of AI with ushering in the age of thinking machines, transforming the present while pushing the boundaries of what once seemed impossible.
The 2025 Person of the Year issue features two global covers designed to visualize the scale and speed of the AI revolution, spotlighting several of the most influential figures driving it. The cover story was reported across three continents and built on dozens of interviews with executives, computer scientists, economists, politicians, artists, investors, teenagers, and grieving families grappling with AI’s real-world consequences.
Among those interviewed are NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Baidu CEO Robin Li. The reporting also explores the shifting posture of AI’s most prominent champions and critics.
In the cover story, TIME reporters Charlie Campbell, Andrew Chow, and Billy Perrigo note that for decades, society braced itself for the arrival of thinking machines, often with warnings of existential risk. Tech leaders including Sam Altman and Elon Musk cautioned that unchecked development could lead to catastrophic outcomes. But in 2025, that debate gave way to something more urgent — a global sprint to deploy AI at unprecedented speed.
TIME Chief Executive Officer Jessica Sibley said the individuals shaping AI now wield unparalleled influence as the technology rapidly reshapes economies, politics, culture, and personal identity. She emphasized that TIME’s role is to provide clarity and guidance as audiences navigate a historic transformation with no clear precedent.
The issue also recognizes other major figures and cultural forces of the year. TIME named Neal Mohan as CEO of the Year, Leonardo DiCaprio as Entertainer of the Year, A’ja Wilson as Athlete of the Year, and KPop Demon Hunters as Breakthrough of the Year. In partnership with American Family Insurance, TIME and TIME Studios also named Direct Relief as Dreamer of the Year.
The December 29, 2025, Person of the Year issue will arrive on newsstands beginning Friday, December 19, capturing what TIME frames as a defining inflection point — the year humanity stopped asking whether artificial intelligence would change the world and started confronting the reality that it already has.
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