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‘Architects of AI’ named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year
Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2025 is not a single person.
Instead, the magazine has recognised the year’s most influential figure as “the architects” of artificial intelligence (AI).
Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, Meta head Mark Zuckerberg, X owner Elon Musk and ‘AI godmother’ Fei-Fei Li are among those depicted on one of the magazine’s two covers.
Experts say it highlights how quickly AI, and the firms behind it, are reshaping society.
It comes as a boom in the technology, ushered in by OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, continues at pace.
Its boss Sam Altman said in September its chatbot is used by around 800 million people every week.
Big tech firms are pouring billions of dollars into AI and the infrastructure behind it in a bid to stay ahead of rivals.
There are two covers this year – one a piece of art depicting the letters AI surrounded by workers, and another a painting focused on the tech leaders themselves.
The cover references the classic New York photograph “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” – but with tech figures in place of ironworkers [BBC]
At Meta, Zuckerberg has reportedly focused the firm around the tech, including its AI chatbot, which it has embedded in its popular apps.
He, along with Huang, Musk, Li and Altman, appeared on the cover alongside Lisa Su, boss of chipmaker AMD, Anthropic chief Dario Amodei, and Google’s AI lab lead Sir Demis Hassabis.
“This year, the debate about how to wield AI responsibly gave way to a sprint to deploy it as fast as possible,” Time said as it announced its new covers.
“But the risk-averse are no longer in the driver’s seat.
“Thanks to Huang, Son, Altman, and other AI titans, humanity is now flying down the highway, all gas no brakes, toward a highly automated and highly uncertain future.”
And the magazine’s editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs said “no one” had as great an impact in 2025 than “the individuals who imagined, designed, and built AI”.
“Humanity will determine AI’s path forward, and each of us can play a role in determining AI’s structure and future,” he said.
Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said 2025 could be seen as a “tipping point” for how frequently AI is now used in our day-to-day lives.
“Most consumers use it without even being aware of it,” he told the BBC.
He said AI is now being crammed into hardware, software and services – meaning it its uptake is “much faster than during the Internet or mobile revolutions”.
Some people now choose chatbots over search engines and social media to plan holidays, find Christmas gifts and discover recopies.
Others, such as those worried about its energy use, training data and impact on their livelihoods, are opting-out entirely.
Nik Kairinos, founder and chief executive of lab Fountech AI, said the covers were “an honest assessment” of the tech’s influence, but he felt “recognition should not be confused with readiness”.
“At this moment, AI can still be a saviour or scourge to humanity,” he said.
“We are still in the early stages of building AI systems that are dependable, accountable, and aligned with human values.
“For those of us developing the technology and bringing AI tools to market, there is huge responsibility.”
This isn’t the first time the Person of the Year has been a large group, with Ebola fighters being handed it in 2014 and whistleblowers in 2002.
Previously, in 1982, it recognised the computer, with the magazine saying Americans had a “giddy passion” for the device.
Time called it “partly fad”, but said it was also “partly a sense of how life could be made better”.
The computer was represented by a number of tech entrepreneurs of the time, including Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and IBM president John Opel.
Then in 2006, the Person of the Year was given to “You” – intended to represent the power of individuals online.
Wikipedia contributors, early YouTubers and MySpace users were noted as examples of “the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing”.
It continued: “That will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.”
[BBC]
During an operation conducted in the dark hours of 11 Mar 26, the Sri Lanka Navy seized an Indian fishing boat and apprehended 02 Indian fishermen while they were poaching in Sri Lankan waters, in the sea area North of Mannar.
The North Central Naval Command spotted a group of Indian fishing boats engaging in illegal fishing, trespassing into Sri Lankan waters. In response, naval craft of the North Central Naval Command were deployed to drive away those Indian fishing boats from island waters off Mannar.
The seized boat (01) and Indian fishermen (02) were handed over to the Fisheries Inspector of Kilinochchi for onward legal proceedings.
The bodies of 84 Iranian sailors killed in a torpedo attack by a US submarine last week in the Indian Ocean are due to be flown home on Friday, Sri Lanka’s defence ministry has said.
The seamen were among 130 thought to be aboard the Iranian warship, the Iris Dena, when it was sunk on 4 March about 40km (25 miles) from Sri Lanka’s southern coastline.
A police escort transferred bodies to Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport on Friday morning for the repatriation to Iran, after they were stored in two freezers at Galle National Hospital.
Sri Lanka said 32 sailors rescued by its navy after the torpedo attack “will remain in Sri Lanka”, according to news agency AFP.
A magistrate in the Sri Lankan city of Galle ordered that the 84 bodies should be released to the Iranian embassy.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said shortly after the sinking that the Iranian warship had died a “quiet death”.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the US had “perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores”, adding that “the US will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set”.
Video released by the US Department of Defense after the incident showed a ship being struck, causing the stern to rise up before exploding.
The Iris Dena had been returning from a military exercise hosted by India when it was attacked.
Its sinking in international waters came during the current US-Israeli war with Iran and marked a dramatic widening of the conflict.
Iran has since launched retaliatory strikes across the Middle East – targeting Gulf countries allied with the US.
Four of six members of a US military refueling aircraft’s crew have been confirmed dead after it crashed in western Iraq, US Central Command (Centcom) says.
Rescue efforts continue after the loss of the KC-135, it said, having earlier said neither hostile nor friendly fire were involved in the downing of the aircraft.
The tanker had been involved in ongoing US operations against Iran and was one of two aircraft involved in the incident. The second landed safely.
The Boeing-manufactured aircraft are capable of refueling planes midair and typically play a major role in US military operations. They were used extensively in the first Gulf War to extend the range of fighter jets and bombers.
Centcom said the incident occurred around 14:00 ET (19:00 GMT) on Thursday and that the circumstances of the crash were now under investigation.
The US military command unit added that the identities of the personnel who had been killed were being withheld for 24 hours so their next of kin could be notified.
The KC-135 usually has a crew of at least a pilot, a co-pilot and a boom operator responsible for controlling the refuelling arm of the aircraft.
Centcom earlier described the crash as happening over friendly airspace – but this is a region of Iraq where pro-Iranian militias operate. Iran’s military claimed on state TV that an allied group had targeted the plane with a missile.
Thursday’s crash brings the official US military death toll in the US-Israel war with Iran, which began a fortnight ago, to 11.
The US military has now lost at least four aircraft during the current war.
Earlier this month, three F15s were shot down in “an apparent friendly fire incident” over Kuwait, officials said. All six crew members were able to safely eject.
Boeing manufactured the KC-135 Stratotanker for the US military in the 1950s and early 1960s.
It has been a backbone to the US military’s air refuelling fleet, and allow combat aircraft to carry out longer missions without needing to land.
[BBC]
Navy seizes an Indian fishing boat poaching in Mannar seas
Bodies of 84 Iranian sailors killed in US torpedo strike to be repatriated
Four crew members killed after US refuelling plane crashes in Iraq
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