Image source: Time 100 AI
Yesterday, Time Magazine released its Time 100 AI list, coinciding with the cover story of their latest issue.
[B]ehind every advance in machine learning and large language models are, in fact, people—both the often obscured human labor that makes large language models safer to use, and the individuals who make critical decisions on when and how to best use this technology. Reporting on people and influence is what TIME does best. That led us to the TIME100 AI.
Time’s list includes 100 individuals involved in the current AI landscape, grouped into the categories of leaders, innovators, shapers, and thinkers.
While there is an array of impressive names on the list in the various categories, there was some immediate discussion on Twitter of significant exclusions, with Jürgen Schmidhuber and Andrej Karpathy being two names that seemed to come up repeatedly. I had some oversights of my own that I would have added, along with several names I feel could have been left off, but it’s not my list so there isn’t much I can do about it.
Instead of complaining, I have decided to look at the list as a snapshot of how an influential popular publication is reporting on AI to the masses. As such, I would not endorse this as authoritative in any manner, but still choose to bring it to our readers for informational purposes.
You can find out more about how they put the list together here.
TIME’s most knowledgeable editors and reporters spent months fielding recommendations from dozens of sources, to put together hundreds of nominations that we whittled down to the group you see today. We interviewed nearly all of the individuals on this list to get their perspective on the path of AI today.
Whether or not you agree fully with the inclusions, I feel that it is still important to know what popular publications are reporting to the masses about the AI industry. I would imagine that even the most well-versed follower of the AI landscape would encounter some unfamiliar names with which to familiarize themselves.
Image source: How We Chose the TIME100 Most Influential People in AI
I encourage everyone to have a look at the list themselves, gain some insight into contemporary AI leaders, and — just as importantly — get an understanding of how those outside of the industry see it.
Matthew Mayo (@mattmayo13) holds a Master’s degree in computer science and a graduate diploma in data mining. As Editor-in-Chief of KDnuggets, Matthew aims to make complex data science concepts accessible. His professional interests include natural language processing, machine learning algorithms, and exploring emerging AI. He is driven by a mission to democratize knowledge in the data science community. Matthew has been coding since he was 6 years old.
