The Architects of AI are Time's Person of the Year – here are 3 reasons why

They reshaped daily life and redefined global power

· TechRadar

News By Eric Hal Schwartz published 12 December 2025

(Image credit: Nvidia)

In a year shaped by the reach, ambition, and unease of artificial intelligence, Time magazine gave its top annual title not to a world leader or celebrity, but to a coalition: the “Architects of AI.”

This group spans a powerful network of engineers, CEOs, and researchers, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and key figures at Google, Meta, and Anthropic.

Their selection captures just how much control these individuals now exert over tools used by millions each day, often invisibly, and how swiftly their creations have moved from lab experiments to fixtures of modern life.

The decision makes clear that AI has crossed a threshold. It is no longer a speculative technology or background force; it is central to modern life. But there's more to it than that.

Here's why it now seems inevitable that Time would choose this group.

AI crowd

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

AI was once limited to academic journals, niche research labs, and speculative fiction. In 2025, that's clearly no longer true. AI is no longer an experiment; it is a constant presence in many people's lives. The Architects of AI engineered that shift, not just by developing sophisticated models but by ensuring they were accessible, usable, and, perhaps most significantly, desirable.

ChatGPT is only three years old, but 800 million people use it a week. This kind of adoption isn't limited to OpenAI and has only accelerated with integration into other services. Google’s Gemini sits at the top of Google search results. Microsoft’s Copilot is part of every Office platform. Meta’s chatbots appear across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and that's only what's visible.

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