The 100 most influential people in AI in 2026: interesting facts

Everyone on TIME's 2026 TIME100 AI list, researched by Autumn: the surprising story behind each name, where they worked and studied, and who worked together before. Every fact has a source.

100
people on TIME's list
13
worked at Google or DeepMind
10
worked at OpenAI
13
studied at Stanford
34
have a PhD
Josh PayneFounder and CEO, Nscale
He dropped out of high school to work three years as a coal miner in Australia; now his AI data-centre company is going public at a target $30 billion valuation.
Leaderseuropeancapitalist.com
Joëlle PineauChief AI Officer, Cohere
Before leading Meta's AI research lab, she sat in a helicopter cockpit recording her own voice to train a speech system, because no female pilots were available.
Leadersen.wikipedia.org
Peter SteinbergerCreator, OpenClaw
He made OpenClaw, the open-source personal AI agent that became GitHub's most-starred software project.
Innovatorssteipete.me
All 100 facts

Leaders 26

Mark ChenSam AltmanGreg BrockmanElon MuskDario AmodeiDaniela AmodeiArvind KrishnaLila IbrahimLiang RuboA.G. SulzbergerHock TanArvind RamanJeff BezosMoustapha CisséJosh PayneLarry EllisonHe TingboValerii BorovykJoëlle PineauMatt GarmanAli GhodsiEddie WuElizabeth ReidNigel VazMichael IntratorLiang Mong Song

Innovators 25

Daniel NadlerBen AffleckStella LiMichael TruellAzalia MirhoseiniAnna GoldieYang ZhilinPeter SteinbergerAnima AnandkumarMohamed MoussaCoerte VoorheesBrendan FoodyMikey ShulmanDanielle BoyerUtkarsh SaxenaUljan SharkaAndrew FeldmanDeng TaihuaZhang PengWinston WeinbergSuchi SariaSanjay MehrotraVivek RaghavanHon Weng ChongXiao Hong

Shapers 25

Doreen Bogdan-MartinJoseph Gordon-LevittPat GradyAlfred LinAndrea BartzMax TegmarkJack ClarkAndy KonwinskiSunny GandhiParis HiltonErin BrockovichWafa Ben-HassineBernadette MeehanSarah GuoBernie SandersDavid SacksAngle BushAlessandra SalaGarrett LordJoe DominguezPhilip ColliganMeetali JainLiz ShulerGeoff RalstonMax Spero

Thinkers 24

Mira MuratiKarine PersetHank GreenAyoung KimNewton Campbell Jr.Daniela RusJosh ParkerDavid AutorDarío GilAndy MasleyChad EdwardsEmil MichaelIlya SutskeverFei-Fei LiMarian CroakYann LeCunRavi Kumar SZhou BowenChelsea FinnBeth BarnesVeronyka GimenesOwain EvansSanmi KoyejoAlex Rives
Explore · Facts100surprising facts, one about each person, from coal mines to helicopter cockpits.One fact about each of the 100 Explore · Connections10 of 100worked at OpenAI. Where they went, and who else worked together before.OpenAI alumni, shared employers and schools, and who worked together Explore · Backgrounds35 of 63with a published birthplace were born outside the United States.What they do, where they were born and when
01

How we made this

Research task Completed
Prompt

Research all 100 people on TIME's 2026 TIME100 AI list, one row per person, grouped by TIME's four categories… For each person: nationality, birthplace, age, education and universities, career history, current role… Pay special attention to connections between people on the list… Cite a credible source for every fact.

People
100
Facts
573
Sources
573