Dubainnovation: TIME100 AI Impact Awards 2025

by Sophie She

Dubainnovation: TIME100 AI Impact Awards 2025

12 Feb 2025

Dubai sharply positions itself as a centre for innovative solutions. The future of artificial intelligence took center stage at the Museum of the Future on February 10, 2025, as TIME hosted the TIME100 AI Impact Awards Gala. Dedicated to recognising individuals revolutionising their industries through AI, this exclusive event brought together some of the world’s most pioneering minds together.

Honouring AI’s Trailblazers

The 2025 TIME100 AI Impact Awards honoured four distinguished leaders whose groundbreaking contributions are reshaping technology and creativity:

— Anima Anandkumar — Professor at Caltech, whose work in AI is driving solutions for some of the world’s most complex scientific challenges.

— Refik Anadol — Renowned media artist and data visionary, known for his AI-driven immersive installations.

— Arvind Krishna — Chairman, President, and CEO of IBM, recognised for his leadership in AI and cloud computing.

— Grimes — Musician, producer, and self-proclaimed “self-replicating artist,” celebrated for her AI-driven music innovations and digital artistry.

Anima Anandkumar; Refik Anadol; Arvind Krishna

AI in the modern world

Of course one cannot deny the importance of Artificial Intelligence these days, thus the event becomes even more prominent. But where there is innovation — there are also the concerns about ethics, bias, and reliability.

Talking with the role model of all younger girls in computer sciences, Anima shares her thoughts on what needs to happen in order for AI to become a more reliable instrument:

“To me, the perspective I see is that if you're only relying on text models, they only have a high-level understanding. They don’t grasp the physical behaviors of the world around us — they don’t live the way we do. That’s why we need to build AI with a deeper physical understanding. Once we do that, AI can be more trustworthy because it will understand the laws of physics and only create designs that actually work in the real world — not just ones that look good on paper. That’s what we’re focused on: AI for the physical world.

The key to making AI more trustworthy is to move beyond just better data and algorithms. We need AI that understands the world in a way that aligns with human values — one that can reason, adapt, and learn with context, not just patterns.”

Speaking about the possibility of the substitution of creators with AI in the near future, Refik Anadol said — “In my arts, I want to showcase that artists can collaborate with AI to create something really outstanding. They can be colleagues, collaborators, and not necessarily substitute one another. On the contrary, AI is a beautiful tool that breaches the limits for creativity.”

Grimes

A Milestone in AI Recognition

Presented by the World Governments Summit and hosted at the Museum of the Future, the 2025 TIME100 AI Impact Awards underscored the importance of recognizing AI’s trailblazers. By celebrating their achievements, TIME continues to inspire innovation, pushing the boundaries of what AI can accomplish.

by Sophie She