TIME

TIME is a news magazine from the USA. It was founded in 1923 and today appears mainly on the internet, with print editions now rare. The magazine reports on politics, business, science, and culture worldwide. It is known for its red-bordered cover images and for its rankings of influential people. In recent years, TIME has also come to play a visible role in coverage of artificial intelligence. Anyone reading news about AI companies will therefore regularly come across the name.

Why the editorial team has a voice in the AI debate

Hundreds of media outlets report on artificial intelligence today. TIME stands out because it has very wide reach and because its articles are often picked up by other media. A single article can thus be cited worldwide within a few hours. For companies, this means that criticism in the magazine rarely goes without consequences.

An example of this was provided by TIME in January 2023. An investigation showed that, for ChatGPT’s safety filters, workers in Kenya had to review distressing texts for hourly wages of around two dollars. The report triggered a broad debate about the working conditions behind AI products. Such investigations take months and are rarely undertaken by pure tech blogs.

Still, some context is important. TIME is a media outlet, not a regulatory authority and not a research institution. Its lists and cover stories are editorial decisions, not measured facts. Readers should understand them as an editorial team’s opinion, not as a ranking based on a fixed formula.

How the lists and cover stories come about

The best-known list is called “Person of the Year.” Since 1927, the editorial team has each year chosen a person or group that has shaped events the most. It is explicitly about influence, not good deeds. Dictators have therefore also appeared on the cover before.

More important for the AI industry is the TIME100 AI list, which has existed since 2023. It names one hundred people each year who particularly shape the development of artificial intelligence. Among them are company executives, researchers, politicians, and critics of the technology. The selection is made by the editorial team based on research and conversations with experts. There is no public vote or measurable score.

The magazine is now financed through subscriptions, advertising, and events. Since 2018, it has been owned by entrepreneur Marc Benioff, founder of the software company Salesforce. This is a detail worth knowing, since Salesforce itself sells AI products. The editorial team operates formally independently, but readers may want to keep such connections in mind.

Where you encounter the magazine in news reports

You will most often come across TIME as a source citation. When a German news site writes “as reported by the US magazine TIME,” that is where the original investigation came from. This often happens with interviews with well-known company executives or with internal documents that someone has leaked. Such reports spread across many countries within a day.

A second typical case is company press releases. Anyone who has made it onto the TIME100 AI list likes to mention it on their own website or on LinkedIn. Start-ups also use the name to appear more credible to investors. The news value of such announcements is usually low.

A common mistake is confusing it with other rankings. The lists of the wealthiest people come from Forbes, and the list of the largest corporations comes from Fortune. TIME, by contrast, ranks influence, not wealth. Anyone who keeps these three names apart can classify business news much more quickly.