Time has announced the shortlist for who will become the 2023 Person of the Year.
The publication started the tradition in 1927 of naming the person or group with the most influence, for better or worse, over 12 months.
Previous selections included American presidents Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump; international leaders such as Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky; tech titans such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg and finally groups like “The Silence Breakers,” “The Ebola Fighters,” “The Protestor” and “The Good Samaritans,” CBS News reported.
The Person of the Year for 2023 will be announced on Wednesday morning.
The shortlist for 2023 includes:
Hollywood strikers
Writers and actors walked the picket lines this year, causing television and movie production to come to a halt, Time said. Both the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild both came to agreements and are getting back to work.
Xi Jinping
Chinese President Xi Jinping has already been part of Time’s 100 list, which honors the most influential people worldwide, 10 times. Xi was also a runner-up for Person of the Year in 2017.
Taylor Swift
Singer/songwriter Taylor Swift is once again on the list for Person of the Year after her “Eras Tour” and the release of her film documenting her concerts. She has already been part of a Person of the Year cover in 2017 as part of the “Silence Breakers” who spoke out about sexual misconduct, Time said.
Sam Altman
Sam Altman was the founder and CEO of OpenAI, the maker ChatGPT, and he was recently fired and subsequently rehired by the company. Time has honored him twice for his groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence — on the inaugural Time 100 AI list and the 2023 Time 100 list.
Barbie
The year 2023 came coated in Barbie pink. The live-action “Barbie” movie became the highest-grossing film of 2023, earning $1.4 billion.
Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is in its second year. He also held strong against a rebellion by the leader of the mercenary Wagner group, which was ended when a deal was hammered out by Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko. The leader of the mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed in a plane crash. Putin has been on Time’s 100 list several times and was the publication’s Person of the Year in 2007.
King Charles III
The year marked the coronation of King Charles III after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 2022. His mother was named Person of the Year in 1952 when she took the throne.
Jerome Powell
Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell has been trying to curb inflation by raising interest rates slowly so as to not cause a recession. He has been on the Time 100 list twice.
Trump Prosecutors
Former President Donald Trump is facing four separate legal cases in Florida, Georgia, New York and Washington, D.C., and more than 90 charges in those cases alleging election interference, illegally keeping classified documents and falsifying his business records.