As we were finishing this year’s TIME100 AI, I had two conversations, with two very different TIME100 AI honorees, that made clear the stakes of this technological transformation. Sundar Pichai, who joined Google in 2004 and became CEO of the world’s fourth most valuable company nine years ago, told me that introducing the company’s billions of users to artificial intelligence through Google’s products amounts to “one of the biggest improvements we’ve done in 20 years.” Speaking that same day, Meredith Whittaker, a former Google employee and critic of the company who, as the president of Signal, has become one of the world’s most influential advocates for privacy, expressed alarm at the dangers posed by the fact that so much of the AI revolution depends on the infrastructure and decisions of only a handful of big players in tech.
Our purpose in creating the TIME100 AI is to put leaders like Pichai and Whittaker in dialogue and to open up their views to TIME’s readers. That is why we are excited to share with you the second edition of the TIME100 AI. We built this program in the spirit of the TIME100, the world’s most influential community. TIME’s knowledgeable editors and correspondents, led by Emma Barker and Ayesha Javed, interviewed their sources and consulted members of last year’s list to find the best new additions to our community of AI leaders. Ninety-one of the members of the 2024 list were not on last year’s, an indication of just how quickly this field is changing. They span dozens of companies, regions, and perspectives, including 15-year-old Francesca Mani, who advocates across the U.S. for protections for victims of deepfakes, and 77-year-old Andrew Yao, one of China’s most prominent computer scientists, who called last fall for an international regulatory body for AI.
Just two months after we launched last year’s list, we witnessed one of the most dramatic recent events in the business world, a moment that drew the world’s attention to the individuals leading AI. In November 2023, OpenAI’s board shocked the industry by firing CEO Sam Altman amid questions about his integrity. After his subsequent return to the company, Altman was recognized as TIME’s 2023 CEO of the Year. Since then, several top safety leaders have left OpenAI, raising concern over the lab’s—and the industry’s—pace of development. OpenAI has promised to refocus on increased caution, installing a new safety committee, which it has said will assess the company’s approach. Safety concerns animate many of the individuals recognized in this issue.
If the world of AI was dominated by the emergence of startup labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and their competitors in 2023, this year, as critics and champions alike have noted, we’ve seen the outsize influence of a small number of tech giants. Without them, upstart AI companies would not have the funding and computing power—known as compute—they need to propel their rapid acceleration.
This year’s list offers examples of the possibilities for AI when it moves out of the lab and into the world. Innovators including Zack Dvey-Aharon at AEYE Health and Figure’s Brett Adcock are showing the real-world potential for AI to improve how we live and work. Many industries, including media companies like TIME, are now partnering with leading AI companies to explore new business models and opportunities. The consequences of those moves will likely determine who appears on next year’s list.
Since launching the TIME100 AI last September, we’ve been able to gather members of this group together in San Francisco and Dubai. We look forward to convening this group again in San Francisco and London later this fall as we continue to grow this community.