JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images; Matt McClain/The Washington Post/Getty Images
- Time released its annual 100 Most Influential People list on Thursday.
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew made the list for the first time.
- Altman has drawn attention following OpenAI's release of ChatGPT, and Chew is under scrutiny as governments consider banning TikTok.
Time published its annual list of the world's 100 most influential people, and two business leaders made it for the first time: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
Both have stepped into the spotlight in the past year, as OpenAI released AI chatbot ChatGPT and as governments ban TikTok, citing concerns about its ownership by Chinese company ByteDance.
Chew recently testified before Congress about TikTok's data privacy policies after President Biden's administration threatened to ban TikTok in the US if ByteDance doesn't sell its shares.
In his blurb on Altman in Time's list, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky wrote, "If anyone knows where this is going, it's Sam. But Sam also knows that he doesn't have all the answers. He often says, 'What do you think? Maybe I'm wrong?'"
Altman has come under scrutiny as ChatGPT is received with both praise and skepticism that it may enable plagiarism and the spread of misinformation or become too powerful without guardrails. More than 1,000 people, including OpenAI cofounder Elon Musk and AI experts, recently signed an open letter calling for a pause on the development of advanced AI.
Altman himself has said OpenAI is "a little bit scared" of AI's potential.
In January, he said he thinks the best-case scenario for AI is "so unbelievably good that it's hard for me to even imagine" but he fears the worst case is "lights out for all of us."