This magazine is no longer legitimate.
FWIW, I think they pick the most influential person or persons, not the person I think is the best from the year. Hitler was person of the year and so was Trump.
this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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Exactly this. "AI" and the people behind it were highly newsworthy, it's not a prize and never has been.
AI isn't people.
Imagine if they said that subprime credit swaps were the person of the year in 2006.
Despite the name, the title is not just granted to individuals. Pairs of people such as married couples and political opponents, classes of people, and inanimate objects have all been selected for the special year-end issue.
Notable past winners include:
- The computer
- The endangered Earth
- The Spirit of Ukraine
It's more of a branding thing I guess. It's not like the "award" is real, it's just "this is what the ruling class likes this year"
Useful information. That said, it's probably a little more dangerous in this case because too many people are personifying LLM behavior. I don't think any people assume The Spirit of Ukraine is a sentient being, for instance.
But I concede that the people pushing AI certainly can be, especially since their influence has ruined so many lives already and is poised to ruin many more, both directly and indirectly.
As you can see in the top right corner the person of the year title applies to the architects of AI.
Capitalist media is pure garbage.
The front page literally says: "the architects of AI" are the person of the year.
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I mean I was the Time person of the year in 2006, and I was still in high school.
Every dog would be more qualified to be person of the year. 😂
The title went to "The Architects of AI", not just to AI in general
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they pick the most influential person or persons,
Celebrating fascism along the way...
In defense of Time magazine here they did have Hitler as person of the year once. Its just the most influential person/thing not the "best".
they also had "you" - meaning everyone - in 2006. So anyone who was alive then is technically included.
Celebrating hitler is not a "defense". jfc.
There are plenty of people who resisted.
I love that series so much.
Hell of a way to announce you don’t understand the concept of Time Person of the Year
Yeah, that's the excuse they use when later it turns out that their picks weren't that good, but overall theme is that they try to show the positive people/events.
AI is being prepared as a revolution that can have positive benefits, they are also trying to mislead people that it can think, though when you actually use it for things like software engineering you quickly learn that it is now scam than anything.
The tool is only good in negative aspects such as disinformation and surveillance.
TIL AI is a person.
It is "the architects of ai", which is a bunch of tech CEOs, so even worse.
Legally so are corporations.
Yeah, Al is short for Alphonsejamin.
Yes. Time being irrelevant and stupid is only a recent phenomenon.
ITT: people taking a fake award both at face value and way too seriously.
Seriously it's not even an honorific, it just describes the most newsworthy people from that year
ITT: people absorbing disinformation and fake news with zero critical faculty.
That magazine was already irrelevant since a decade ago, I've never taken their person of the year thing serious
AI is definitelly the "Thing of the Year" in terms of its impact.
Doesn't mean it's a good thing though, just high impact (and impact which is going to be even higher when the bubble collapses dragging the rest of the American Economy with it).
wonder if mortgage lenders were person of the year in 2007
I think it was just mortgages... but it might've said "brokers" really tiny in fine print.
Worst choice since 2006.
But... I'm awesome 🥺
It's Time ended long ago.
Cover looks like slop.
it. never. was.
Is this real? This can't be real. Is it?...
Everyone here is complaining that AI isn't a person and bringing up 2006... Nobody seems to remember 1982's person of the year.
Was 2 in 1982 so how about you enlighten me?
I wasn't even born yet but I still know how to use the Internet to find out it was the computer
OP tell us who you would put up there instead and why
I stopped considering it legitimate when they claimed that I was person of the year in 2006. I didn't even do anything besides post on myspace, leave youtube comments, drank vodka, and slept around.
What? It was my early 20s.....if you don't wake up five different times, in five different womens beds, where you have no clue who they are, where you are, or where your kidneys are....then you're not doing your early 20s right!
Now.....early 40s? I drink a lot of water. Did you know you should be drinking more water? Because you should be drinking more water.
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