TIME Magazine has sparked outrage after snubbing Elon Musk from its’ Most Influential People in AI’ list – while featuring Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson on the cover.
The second annual ‘TIME 100 AI’ list, meant to showcase the brightest minds in artificial intelligence, was slammed for what many see as a bold oversight on Thursday,
Musk, the driving force behind Tesla’s self-driving technology, CEO of SpaceX, and owner of X was conspicuously absent from the lineup this year – despite playing a key role in the founding of The Boring Company, xAI, Neuralink, and OpenAI – the maker of ChatGPT.
The magazine instead chose to feature ‘Black Widow’ star Scarlett Johansson among the 18 cover personalities.
TIME Magazine has sparked outrage after snubbing Elon Musk from its’ Most Influential People in AI’ list – while featuring Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson on the cover
Musk, the driving force behind Tesla ‘s self-driving technology, data collection efforts, and the humanoid robot Optimus, was conspicuously absent from the lineup this year
The actress was famously thrown to the center of the AI conversation after she was approached by OpenAI with a request to use her voice for their new chatbot.
Despite Johansson declining their offer, they moved ahead with a chatbot using a voice she says was so similar to her own that her own family could not tell the difference.
The star went on to use her platform to lobby against deepfakes, and OpenAI removed the offending voice from their chatbot without admitting it was inspired by Johansson.
Some of other names on the list include: Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta.
Peter Yang, a project manager at Roblox, slammed the magazine’s cover on X (formerly Twitter).
‘It’s hilarious that Scarlett Johansson is pictured here, but there’s no: Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Ilya Sutskever, Andrej Karpathy or even…Mark Zuckerberg,’ he wrote in the post which has gained nearly 200k views.
Other names were omitted from the list altogether.
Among them was Devo Harris, founder of Adventr, whose patented AI technology allows users to speak directly to videos and receive real-time responses – a platform that Disney uses to create interactive video, with the startup being named as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024.
Many users agreed with Yang’s take on the snubs, with one commenting: ‘This is a great representation of the total collapse of corporate media.’
Another added, ‘I’m pretty sure I can name 100 people more influential to our AI future than most of the folks on this cover,’ a third user wrote.
Others had their own takes on Time’s picks, with one user stating: ‘I think the goal was to make the cover go viral by making people wonder why certain people were on the cover. It worked.’
The magazine instead chose to feature ‘Black Widow’ star Scarlett Johansson among the 18 cover personalities
Some of other names on the list include: Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft , and Mark Zuckerberg , CEO of Meta
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Microsoft Build conference at the Seattle Convention Center Summit Building in Seattle
TIME emphasized the list’s diversity on their website, explaining that It features 91 new entries compared to last year, spanning various companies, regions, and perspectives.
They specifically mentioned the range of ages from 15-year-old deepfake protection advocate Francesca Mani to 77-year-old Chinese computer scientist Andrew Yao.
The magazine stated: ‘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.’
The magazine clarified that ninety-one of the members of the 2024 list were not on last year’s, claiming it’s ‘an indication of just how quickly this field is changing.’
In June, Musk forecasted a ’10 to 20 per cent probability’ of a scenario in which AI annihilates humanity.
Speaking at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Musk told audiences that even AI’s most positive outcomes would lead to an ‘existential crisis’ for humanity.
Marc Benioff, the chair and CEO of Salesforce and the owner of TIME pictured (left) with Elon Musk (right)
Last year’s TIME100 Most Influential People in AI cover
Musk has been a long-standing critic of AI, often saying that unchecked development could lead to the destruction of humanity.
Today Musk once again reiterated that point, saying: ‘I tend to agree with Geoff Hinton – one of the godfathers of AI – and he thinks there’s a 10-20% probability of something terrible happening.’
Last year, Musk was one of 1,000 signatories calling for a pause on AI development.
The billionaire has even warned that AI could be ‘one of the biggest threats to humanity’.
However, just as the Tesla CEO has before, Musk also argued that the potential benefits outweigh the risks.
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