TIME's 2026 AI 100: Hwang In-hyun, Leung Man-fung Not Listed, Yoo Jihyun First Time Honoree

Dynaware Beating AI News, Time has unveiled the 2026 TIME100 AI, marking the fourth edition of this AI-centric list. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and DeepSeek CEO Jack Leung, both in the "Leaders" category last year, did not make the cut this year.

Darkside of the Moon's Zhi Lin Yang made his debut in the "Innovators" category, with Time Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs singling him out, noting that Darkside of the Moon's model has received "unusual attention" in the past year, sometimes even surpassing its most advanced American competitors.

In the "Leaders" category this year, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Mark Chen, and Greg Brockman made the list together, while Anthropic's Dario and Daniela Amodei were also selected. Among Chinese companies, individuals from ByteDance, Alibaba, Huawei, SMIC, Darkside of the Moon, Zhifu, Manus, AIBrain, and BYD all made the list.

Among this year's new faces, there are many entrepreneurs in the field of Agent and AI tools. Cursor CEO Michael Truell, OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger, and Manus founder Jack Xiao all entered the "Innovators" category.

Perhaps the most unexpected inclusion is Ben Affleck. The Hollywood actor, known for his role as Batman, has also been listed as an "Innovator." He founded InterPositive, which uses AI for film post-production. In March of this year, Netflix acquired the company, revealing a cash acquisition price of approximately $587 million, with Affleck also joining Netflix as a senior advisor.