In what has become a tradition every few years, Time magazine's "Person of the Year" isn't an individual for 2025 -- it's a group and a concept. In this case, it's what Time is dubbing, "The architects of AI."

Time Editor in Chief Sam Jacobs said in a note about the cover story that AI's power and influence was ever-present in 2025, advancing rapidly and making the impossible possible.

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"This was the year when artificial intelligence's full potential roared into view, and when it became clear that there will be no turning back or opting out," Jacobs wrote. "Whatever the question was, AI was the answer."

The magazine's two covers for the Dec. 29 issue are an image of the word AI with scaffolding and workers around it, and one with AI leaders including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Elon Musk, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang among others on a construction beam above New York, evoking the 1932 photo Lunch Atop a Skyscraper.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

AI's big 2025

The Time cover puts a cap on a busy year of AI innovation, controversy and news. 

As with several previous Time Person of the Year covers, it marks an era of major technological change. Some previous winners of the distinction have included "You" (for user-generated media in 2006), "The Computer" (Machine of the Year, 1982), and "US Scientists" (1960).

The decision to make AI the cover figure for 2025, however, reflects how much AI has permeated science, government, the workplace, education and media.

"AI has been the gravitational center of 2025 for the economy and the source of endless discussions on how it will shape the future of our societies," said Thomas Husson, principal analyst at Forrester Research. "In this regard, it is fair to select the Architects of AI in the strictest sense of 'influence.'" 

Husson said that 2025 marked a tipping point for AI and that the next year promises to make these technologies more personal and embedded in everyday life as more people globally turn to AI to perform tasks or even for companionship.

Time's article pointed to not only how AI changed things, but also the ambivalence and fear many have for the technology.

"'For better or worse' is also a fair summary given how consumers are polarized when it comes to AI," said Husson. "Forty-five percent of US and UK online adults agree that AI poses a serious threat to society; however, 45% of them also think generative AI will make life easier in the long term."