NEW YORK, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Time magazine named the architects of artificial intelligence its "Person of the Year" on Thursday, citing their ability to deliver the age of thinking machines with transformative technology.
"Person of the Year is a powerful way to focus the world's attention on the people that shape our lives. And this year, no one had a greater impact than the individuals who imagined, designed, and built AI," Time Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs wrote in a letter to readers.
Jacobs described the architects as "wowing and worrying humanity" and "transforming the present and transcending the possible."
The 2025 "Person of the Year" issue features a cover story that explores how AI changed the world over the year in new and "sometimes frightening ways." It includes interviews with Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang, whose chips are powering the AI boom, and AI investors such as SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
It explores such troubling aspects of AI as the death of a 16-year-old Californian who committed suicide, after which his parents sued ChatGPT maker OpenAI, blaming the company for their son's death because of conversations he had with the chatbot.
Time is among many media outlets partnering with AI firms to license content and develop new tools. In June 2024 it signed a multi-year content deal with OpenAI that gave the ChatGPT maker access to its archived news content. In response to user queries, the chatbot cites and links back to the source on Time.com.
Time magazine named then-President-elect Donald Trump "Person of the Year" in 2024, as well as in 2016. Past winners have also included pop star Taylor Swift, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk.
(Reporting by Helen Coster; editing by Donna Bryson)
Mr. Masayoshi Son is a Chairman at Supercell Oy, a Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at SoftBank Group Corp., a Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at SB Investment Advisers (UK) Ltd. and a President & Representative Director at Wireless City Planning, Inc. He is on the Board of Directors at Arm Ltd. (United Kingdom), SoftBank Group Japan KK, SoftBank Corp. and Wireless City Planning, Inc.
Mr. Son was previously employed as a Chairman by SVF Holdco (UK) Ltd., a President, CEO & Representative Director by Softbank Telecom Corp., a President, CEO & Representative Director by SOFTBANK BB Corp., a Chairman by Brightstar International Corp., a Principal by MIC America LLC, a President & Director by SoftBank Holdings, Inc., and a Member by Son Asset Management LLC. He also served on the board at Sprint Corp., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Z Holdings Corp.
He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
NVIDIA Corporation is the world leader in the design, development, and marketing of programmable graphics processors. The group also develops associated software. Net sales break down by family of products as follows:
- computing and networking solutions (89%): data center platforms and infrastructure, Ethernet interconnect solutions, high-performance computing solutions, platforms and solutions for autonomous and intelligent vehicles, solutions for enterprise artificial intelligence infrastructure, crypto-currency mining processors, embedded computer boards for robotics, teaching, learning and artificial intelligence development, etc.;
- graphics processors (11%): for PCs, game consoles, video game streaming platforms, workstations, etc. (GeForce, NVIDIA RTX, Quadro brands, etc.). The group also offers laptops, desktops, gaming computers, computer peripherals (monitors, mice, joysticks, remote controls, etc.), software for visual and virtual computing, platforms for automotive infotainment systems and cloud collaboration platforms.
Net sales break down by industry between data storage (88.3%), gaming (8.7%), professional visualization (1.4%), automotive (1.3%) and other (0.3%).
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: the United States (46.9%), Singapore (18.2%), Taiwan (15.8%), China and Hong Kong (13.1%) and other (6%).
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