TIME Reveals the 2026 TIME100 AI List of the World’s Most Influential People in Artificial Intelligence

Today, TIME reveals the fourth annual TIME100 AI list, recognizing the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence. 

The 2026 TIME100 AI issue includes one worldwide cover featuring listmakers,Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Jeff Bezos, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Marian Croak, Larry Ellison, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Paris Hilton, Lila Ibrahim, Arvind Krishna, Fei-Fei Li, Mira Murati, Elon Musk, David Sacks, Liz Shuler, Ilya Sutskever, and Eddie Wu. 

Published alongside the TIME100 AI are in-depth interviews with Thinking Machines Lab chief executive officer Mira Murati, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union Doreen Bogdan-Martin and OpenEvidence founder and chief executive officer Daniel Nadler. 

–See the complete 2026 TIME100 AI list: ti.me/100ai 

–See the TIME100 AI cover featuring a photo illustration by Israel G. Vargas for TIME

To assemble the list, TIME’s editors and reporters spent months researching candidates for the list, including soliciting recommendations from industry leaders and dozens of expert and thinkers who are building our AI future

Of the TIME100 AI list, TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs writes:“We started the TIME100 AI three years ago with the goal of determining who were the most influential leaders in artificial intelligence… Since then… the technology has gone from a curiosity to a constant in how we work and organize our lives. It’s become a primary way the world seeks out knowledge.” 

Jacobs continues: “The activity in AI has been explosive and divisive, filled with big promises and big fears. The individuals on the 2026 TIME100 AI reflect the tumultuous state of this field. In the past 12 months, we’ve seen executives like xAI’s Elon Musk take leading AI firms to the public markets; figures like Anthropic’s Dario Amodei clash with the Pentagon over how AI tools are used in war; founders like Oracle’s Larry Ellison rush to build the <a href="https://axiomcore.info/11-3b-data-center-pitch-in-bradley-county-comes-amid-growing-local-skepticism/" title="$11.3B data center pitch in Bradley County comes amid growing local skepticism”>data centers the industry says AI needs to reach its full potential; and researchers like Chinese startup Moonshot AI’s Yang Zhilin build models that attract extraordinary attention and on occasion outperform the most advanced U.S. competitors. At the same time, a growing coalition of politicians and advocates like Senator Bernie Sanders, labor leader Liz Shuler, and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt are warning what these changes could mean.” Read more here. 

‘TIME100 IMPACT DINNER’ TO RECOGNIZELEADERS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF AI:

TIME will host the TIME100 Impact Dinner: Leaders Shaping the Future of AIto spotlight leaders, innovators, and visionaries shaping the future of artificial intelligence, including those featured on the 2026 TIME100 AI list, on September 14th in San Francisco. The event will feature conversations exploring AI’s impact across industries and society with the people shaping its future, including actor, filmmaker and entrepreneur Joseph Gordon-Levitt; International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin; Deloitte Consulting LLP Chair and CEO Jason Salzetti; Booking Holdings CEO and President Glenn Fogel; Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S; and more.

The 2026 TIME100 AI is presented by premier sponsor Deloitte, and signature partners Booking.comand Cognizant.