Spyke
lemmy.world

FWIW, I think they pick the most influential person or persons, not the person I think is the best from the year. Hitler was person of the year and so was Trump.

88
davidgroreply
lemmy.world

Exactly this. "AI" and the people behind it were highly newsworthy, it's not a prize and never has been.

54
lemmy.ml

AI isn't people.

Imagine if they said that subprime credit swaps were the person of the year in 2006.

30
lemmy.ca

Despite the name, the title is not just granted to individuals. Pairs of people such as married couples and political opponents, classes of people, and inanimate objects have all been selected for the special year-end issue.

Wikipedia

Notable past winners include:

  • The computer
  • The endangered Earth
  • The Spirit of Ukraine
39

It's more of a branding thing I guess. It's not like the "award" is real, it's just "this is what the ruling class likes this year"

9
taiyangreply
lemmy.world

Useful information. That said, it's probably a little more dangerous in this case because too many people are personifying LLM behavior. I don't think any people assume The Spirit of Ukraine is a sentient being, for instance.

But I concede that the people pushing AI certainly can be, especially since their influence has ruined so many lives already and is poised to ruin many more, both directly and indirectly.

5

As you can see in the top right corner the person of the year title applies to the architects of AI.

3
Denjinreply
feddit.uk

The front page literally says: "the architects of AI" are the person of the year.

13
lemmy.ml

In tiny font compared to everything else. It's clear AI is the person of the year.

Although "the architects of subprime mortgages" would have been a funny person of the year too.

-4
Denjinreply
feddit.uk

It's the only text on the front page barring the artwork

4
lemmy.ml

The "artwork" is literally giant text that spells AI. "The architects of" is a thin font off in the corner. AI is the main event.

-3

I mean I was the Time person of the year in 2006, and I was still in high school.

11
pawb.social

In defense of Time magazine here they did have Hitler as person of the year once. Its just the most influential person/thing not the "best".

26

they also had "you" - meaning everyone - in 2006. So anyone who was alive then is technically included.

11
feddit.uk

Hell of a way to announce you don’t understand the concept of Time Person of the Year

20

Yeah, that's the excuse they use when later it turns out that their picks weren't that good, but overall theme is that they try to show the positive people/events.

AI is being prepared as a revolution that can have positive benefits, they are also trying to mislead people that it can think, though when you actually use it for things like software engineering you quickly learn that it is now scam than anything.

The tool is only good in negative aspects such as disinformation and surveillance.

2

Yes. Time being irrelevant and stupid is only a recent phenomenon.

14

That magazine was already irrelevant since a decade ago, I've never taken their person of the year thing serious

9
feddit.uk

Its not a good person contest. It's people who have been prominent.

8
Diddlydeereply
feddit.uk

No, but if you can read, it clearly states the architects of AI, who are people.

7

Copying my earlier comment: The front page literally says: "the architects of AI" are the person of the year.

2

AI is definitelly the "Thing of the Year" in terms of its impact.

Doesn't mean it's a good thing though, just high impact (and impact which is going to be even higher when the bubble collapses dragging the rest of the American Economy with it).

7
lemmy.world

Everyone here is complaining that AI isn't a person and bringing up 2006... Nobody seems to remember 1982's person of the year.

3

I wasn't even born yet but I still know how to use the Internet to find out it was the computer

0

I stopped considering it legitimate when they claimed that I was person of the year in 2006. I didn't even do anything besides post on myspace, leave youtube comments, drank vodka, and slept around.

What? It was my early 20s.....if you don't wake up five different times, in five different womens beds, where you have no clue who they are, where you are, or where your kidneys are....then you're not doing your early 20s right!

Now.....early 40s? I drink a lot of water. Did you know you should be drinking more water? Because you should be drinking more water.

1