Time editors said the final decision reflected the sheer scale of AI’s impact this year.
The choice drew attention given the recent campaign to recognize Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, whose supporters argued he had reshaped national politics following the assassination attempt that galvanized conservative activism. Musk’s endorsement of the idea, which came in reply to a viral X post declaring “Charlie Kirk should be the person of the year,” fueled some speculation that he might become a serious contender.
Time editors said the final decision reflected the sheer scale of AI’s impact this year. The magazine described 2025 as the moment when artificial intelligence “roared into view” and became a permanent force in daily life. “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,” the publication wrote.
Time editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs emphasized that the honor was aimed at the people who “imagined, designed, and built AI,” not the technology itself, though he noted the magazine has occasionally selected concepts or groups in the past.
AI had been among the top prediction-market favorites heading into December, along with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Pope Leo XIV, and President Donald Trump.
Trump was last year’s selection after returning to the White House.
Time’s Person of the Year designation, dating back to 1927, goes to the individual or group the editors believe most shaped world events — for better or worse. This year, despite a vocal campaign backing Kirk, the magazine chose the architects of a technology now reshaping nearly every part of global life.
Recent TIME Persons of the Year include:
• 2024: Donald Trump
• 2023: Taylor Swift
• 2022: Volodymyr Zelensky
• 2021: Elon Musk
• 2020: Joe Biden & Kamala Harris
• 2019: Greta Thunberg
• 2018: “The Guardians” (journalists targeted for their work)
• 2017: “The Silence Breakers”
• 2016: Donald Trump
• 2015: Angela Merkel
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