ChatGPT Among Betting Favorites For Time’s Person Of The Year

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot and virtual assistant program launched by OpenAI in 2022. The company has become the face of AI in recent years. If you write a prompt on ChatGPT’s website, the chatbot will respond and carry on a so-called conversation.

Its generative AI tool can answer questions and assist in tasks like writing emails or papers.

While the program could benefit society, it also induces anxiety around fears that it could replace jobs. People also accuse ChatGPT of being a plagiarism machine.

Broadly, some people accuse AI of being a tech bubble with no long-term use for the technology that could justify the gigantic investments. There’s also debate about whether AI is a problem for the environment due to its energy consumption.

Yes, it could. While artificial intelligence hasn’t yet won the award, Time has a history of giving the award to groups, ideas, themes and technological advancements rather than individuals.

See below for the full list of non-individuals to win:

• 1950: The American Fighting Man (U.S. troops involved in the Korean War)
• 1956: The Hungarian Freedom Fighter (people involved in the uprising against the Soviets)
• 1960: U.S. Scientists (this represented the advancements of science as a whole)
• 1966: The Inheritor (the generation of Americans under 25, now known as the Boomers)
• 1969: Middle Americans (small-town Americans also known as the “silent majority”)
• 1975: American Women (a representation of the feminist movement)
• 1982: The Computer (the closest we’ve come to something like ChatGPT winning)
• 1988: The Endangered Earth (acknowledging the then-growing climate crisis)
• 1993: The Peacemakers (the people who oversaw Nelson Mandela’s release and ended apartheid along with the signers of the Oslo Accord)
• 2002: The Whistleblowers (the people who uncovered the Enron and WorldCom scandals along with the mishandling of information around 9/11)
• 2003: The American Soldier (troops fighting in the Iraq War)
• 2005: The Good Samaritans (the cover featured Bono, Bill Gates and Melinda Gates, who launched foundations and concerts for the impoverished)
• 2006: You (Yes, you! In reality, it represented online content creators)
• 2011: The Protester (protesters globally, including Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street)
• 2014: Ebola Fighters (healthcare workers fighting the Ebola virus epidemic in Africa)
• 2017: The Silence Breakers (represented women speaking out in the MeToo movement)
• 2018: The Guardians (journalists who faced persecution or violence for their reporting)
• 2022: The Spirit of Ukraine (the Ukrainians resisting Russia’s invasion)

As of Aug. 9, former president Donald Trump was the betting favorite to win Time Person of the Year. A one-time winner (2016), Trump is the Republican nominee for president and survived an assassination attempt in mid-July.

Not far behind him is Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president. Time usually declares the winner in January, so Harris would likely win the award if she beats Trump in the election and becomes the first female president in U.S. history.

Behind them are Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used by the person or persons who started Bitcoin, and Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and chairperson of the Human Rights Foundation.

Rounding out the top five is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate who has polled around 6% nationally. A former environmental lawyer and staunch anti-vaccine activist, Kennedy is the son of the late Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated while running for president in 1968.

Artificial intelligence has the sixth-shortest odds. This bet would win if any artificial intelligence program, including ChatGPT, is named Person of the Year.

These were the odds for Time Person of the Year at FanDuel Sportsbook as of Aug. 9.

• Donald Trump: +100
• Kamala Harris: +125
• Satoshi Nakamoto: +250
• Yulia Navalnaya: +250
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: +340
• Artificial intelligence (AI) [Includes ChatGPT]: +430
• Prince William: +650
• Elon Musk: +750
• MrBeast: +850
• Sam Altman: +850
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy: +1000
• Evan Gershkovich: +1000
• King Charles III: +1300
• Taylor Swift: +1400
• Gavin Newsom: +1600
• Xi Jinping: +1600

Odds subject to change

In 2023, Taylor Swift was Time Person of the Year, becoming the first person to earn the distinction for their “achievement in the arts.”

That wasn’t Swift’s first time on the Person of the Year cover. She also graced the cover in 2017 as a part of the Silence Breakers package, which focused on women who were part of the MeToo movement. Swift had spoken against a Denver radio DJ who physically harassed her.

Last year, Swift had +500 odds to win the honor, which trailed only Elon Musk and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This year, she has +1400 odds, which puts her between King Charles III and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Since winning last year’s award, Swift has released “The Tortured Poets Department” (her 11th studio album) and continued “The Eras Tour,” which became the first tour in history to surpass $1 billion in revenue. She’s also continued her much-publicized relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and recently had to cancel her tour dates in Austria due to a plotted terrorist attack.

Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP via Getty Images