TIME Faces Criticism for Listing Scarlett Johansson as Most Influential People in AI — But Not Elon Musk
TIME magazine has caused outrage after removing Elon Musk from its list of “Most Influential People in AI,” despite Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson appearing on the cover.
The second annual ‘TIME 100 AI’ Listintended to showcase the brightest minds in artificial intelligence, was criticized Thursday for what many see as a bold omission,
Musk, the driving force behind Tesla’s self-driving technology, CEO of SpaceX and owner of X, was noticeably absent from this year’s lineup, despite playing a key role in founding The Boring Company, xAI, Neuralink and OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.
The magazine instead chose to feature ‘Black Widow’ star Scarlett Johansson as one of its 18 cover personalities.
TIME Magazine has sparked outrage after it removed Elon Musk from its list of ‘Most Influential People in AI’, despite Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson appearing on the cover
Musk, the driving force behind Tesla’s self-driving technology, data collection efforts and the humanoid robot Optimus, was noticeably absent from this year’s lineup
The actress found herself at the center of the AI debate after OpenAI approached her with a request to use her voice for their new chatbot.
Despite Johansson declining their offer, they went ahead with developing a chatbot with a voice she said sounded so similar to her own that her own family couldn’t tell the difference.
The star then used her platform to lobby against deepfakes and OpenAI removed the offending voice from their chatbot without admitting it was inspired by Johansson.
Other names on the list include: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Peter Yang, project manager at Roblox, strongly criticized the magazine’s cover on X (formerly Twitter).
“It’s hilarious that Scarlett Johansson is in this photo but there’s no Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Ilya Sutskever, Andrej Karpathy or even… Mark Zuckerberg,” he wrote in the post, which has been viewed nearly 200,000 times.
Other names were not listed at all.
Among them was Devo Harris, founder of Advent, whose patented AI technology allows users to speak directly to videos and receive real-time responses — a platform Disney is using to create interactive videos, with the startup named as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies from 2024.
Many users agreed with Yang’s assessment of the rejections. One user said, “This is a great representation of the total collapse of the commercial media.”
Another added: “I’m sure I can name 100 people more influential to our AI future than most of the people on this cover,” a third user wrote.
Others had their own take on Time’s choices, with one user saying, “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 opted to feature ‘Black Widow’ star Scarlett Johansson as one of its 18 cover personalities
Some other names on the list include: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at the Microsoft Build conference at the Seattle Convention Center Summit Building in Seattle
TIME highlighted the diversity of the list on its website, noting that there were 91 new entries compared to last year, representing a variety of companies, regions and perspectives.
They specifically cited the range of ages, from 15-year-old Francesca Mani, a deepfake protection advocate, to 77-year-old Chinese computer scientist Andrew Yao.
The magazine stated: ‘Our goal in creating the TIME100 AI is to bring leaders like Pichai and Whittaker into dialogue and open their perspectives to TIME readers. That’s why we’re excited to share the second edition of the TIME100 AI with you.
“We built this program in the spirit of the TIME100, the world’s most influential community. TIME’s expert editors and correspondents, led by Emma Barker and Ayesha Javed, interviewed their sources and consulted with members of last year’s list to find the best new additions to our community of AI leaders.”
The magazine clarified that 91 members of the 2024 list were not on last year’s list, which the magazine said was “an indication of how quickly this field is changing.”
In June, Musk predicted a “10 to 20 percent” probability of a scenario in which AI wipes out humanity.
During his speech at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Musk told the audience that even the most positive outcomes of AI would lead to an “existential crisis” for humanity.
Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce and owner of TIME, pictured (left) with Elon Musk (right)
The cover of last year’s TIME100 Most Influential People in AI
Musk has long been a critic of AI, often saying that unchecked development could lead to the downfall of humanity.
Today, Musk reiterated that point, saying, “I agree with Geoff Hinton, one of the founders of AI, and he thinks there’s a 10-20% chance of something terrible happening.”
Last year, Musk was one of 1,000 signatories calling for a pause on AI development.
The billionaire even warned that AI could be “one of the greatest threats to humanity.”
But like Tesla’s CEO, Musk argued that the potential benefits outweigh the risks.
