TIME magazine has published its 2026 TIME100 AI list, naming 100 individuals it considers the most influential in shaping the development and impact of artificial intelligence.
Launched three years ago, the annual list aims to guide readers through the rapidly expanding field. TIME says this year’s selection reflects “explosive and divisive” activity in AI, with both breakthroughs and mounting concerns.
Among those featured are xAI chief Elon Musk, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and Moonshot AI founder Yang Zhilin.
Over the past year, Musk has taken AI companies towards public markets, while Amodei has clashed with the Pentagon over the use of AI tools in warfare.
Ellison has accelerated efforts to build data centres needed to support AI development, while Yang has developed models that have attracted significant attention and, at times, outperformed leading US competitors.
The list also includes politicians and advocates raising concerns about the implications of AI. US Senator Bernie Sanders, labour leader Liz Shuler and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt are among those warning about the technology’s potential consequences. Sanders told TIME that development of superintelligence should be stopped.
The 2026 selection was led by Ayesha Javed, who worked with TIME journalists and contributors for months to identify 100 people representing the year’s key AI storylines and, in TIME’s assessment, exerting significant influence over the field.
Alongside the list, TIME is publishing an extensive look inside OpenAI, whose 2022 release of ChatGPT fuelled global interest in generative AI. The company appeared to lose momentum for a period, but TIME says executives described how they believe it is regaining it.
TIME Names 100 Most Influential AI Figures of 2026
