Time magazine names 'Architects of AI' as its person of the year for 2025

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Time magazine names 'Architects of AI' as its person of the year for 2025

2025-12-11 22:22 Last Updated At：22:30

The “Architects of AI” were named Time's person of the year for 2025 on Thursday, with the magazine citing this year as when the potential of artificial intelligence “roared into view" with no turning back.

“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 magazine was deliberate in selecting people — the “individuals who imagined, designed, and built AI” — rather than the technology itself, though there would have been some precedent for that.

“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.

Another cover image shows scaffolding surrounding the giant letters “AI” made to look like computer componentry.

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 magazine noted AI company CEOs' attendance at President Donald Trump's inauguration this year at the Capitol as a herald for the prominence of the sector.

“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.

AI was a leading contender for the top slot, according to prediction markets, along with Huang and Altman. Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope whose election this year followed the death of Pope Francis, was also considered a contender, with Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani topping lists as well.

Trump was named the 2024 person of the year by the magazine after his winning his second bid for the White House, succeeding Taylor Swift, who was the 2023 person of the year.

The magazine's selection dates from 1927, when its editors have picked the person they say most shaped headlines over the previous 12 months.

Associated Press writers Matt O'Brien in Cupertino, California, and Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this article.

Nobel laureate Machado plans return to Venezuela, whether or not Maduro is ousted

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Opposition leader María Corina Machado plans to return to Venezuela whether or not President Nicolás Maduro is ousted, saying Thursday that his government is at its weakest point because of U.S. President Donald Trump's “decisive" actions.

Machado's statements to reporters came hours after she appeared in public for the first time in 11 months, following her arrival in Norway's capital, Oslo, where her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize award on her behalf on Wednesday.

“I think that the actions of President Trump have been decisive to reach where we are now, where the regime is significantly weaker,” she told reporters. “Because before, the regime thought it had impunity …. Now they start to understand that this is serious, and that the world is watching.”

The politician, however, sidestepped questions on whether a U.S. military intervention is necessary to remove Maduro from power. She told reporters that she would return to Venezuela “when we believe the security conditions are right, and it won’t depend on whether or not the regime leaves.”

Machado arrived in Oslo hours after Wednesday's prize ceremony and made her first public appearance early Thursday, emerging from a hotel balcony and waving to an emotional crowd of supporters. She had been in hiding since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters during a protest in Caracas.

Machado left Venezuela at a critical point in the country’s protracted crisis, with the Trump administration carrying out a deadly military operation in the Caribbean and threatening repeatedly to strike Venezuelan soil. The White House has said the operation, which has killed 80 people, is meant to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S.

But many, including analysts, U.S. members of Congress and Maduro himself, see the operation as an effort to end his hold on power. The opposition has only added to this perception by reigniting its promise to soon govern the country.

Machado on Thursday called on governments to expand their support for Venezuela's opposition beyond words.

“We, the Venezuelan people that have tried every single, you know, institutional mean, ask support from the democratic nations in the world to cut those resources that come from illegal activities and support repressive approaches,” she said. “And that’s why we are certainly asking the world to act. It’s not a matter of statements, as you say, it’s a matter of action.”

Machado, 58, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October after mounting the most serious peaceful challenge in years to Maduro's authoritarian government. Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize at a ceremony in Oslo.

Machado was received Thursday by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who said that his country is ready to support a democratic Venezuela in “building new and sound institutions.”

Asked whether the Venezuelan government might have known her whereabouts since January, Machado told reporters: “I don’t think they have known where I have been, and certainly they would have done everything to stop me from coming here.”

She declined to give details of her journey from Venezuela to Norway. But she thanked “all those men and women that risked their lives so that I could be here today" and later acknowledged that the U.S. government helped her.

Flight tracking data show that the plane Machado arrived on flew to Oslo from Bangor, Maine.

Machado won an opposition primary election and intended to challenge Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.

The lead-up to the election on July 28, 2024, saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.

González sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest.

It's unclear when and how Machado and González could return to Venezuela. An opposition plan to get González back before the Jan. 10 ceremony that gave Maduro another term didn't materialize.

Machado, alongside the Norwegian prime minister, said that “we decided to fight until the end and Venezuela will be free” and that if Maduro’s government is still in place when she returns, “certainly I will be with my people and they will not know where I am. We have ways to do that and take care of us.”