--- title: Nat Friedman: The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2024 description: Find out why Nat Friedman made TIME’s list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence. canonical: https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2024/7012789/nat-friedman/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-09-05T11:20:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T11:54:22.741Z article:section: Business og:title: TIME100 AI 2024: Nat Friedman og:description: Find out why Nat Friedman made TIME’s list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence og:url: https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2024/7012789/nat-friedman/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt46c4fb3064612a2e/698a5a90457a528f3cd6ab7f/TIME100-AI-2024-SHAPERS_Nat-Friedman-NEW.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME100 AI 2024: Nat Friedman og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: TIME100 AI 2024: Nat Friedman twitter:description: Find out why Nat Friedman made TIME’s list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt46c4fb3064612a2e/698a5a90457a528f3cd6ab7f/TIME100-AI-2024-SHAPERS_Nat-Friedman-NEW.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 05, 2024 # Nat Friedman ## Video: See Everyone on the 2024 TIME100 AI List [Watch (HLS stream): See Everyone on the 2024 TIME100 AI List](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kDTs1aRd.m3u8) (1:53)  _Published 2024-09-05. The 2024 TIME100 AI list features innovators, thinkers, shapers and leaders who are making the future of AI._ by [Andrew R. Chow](https://time.com/author/andrew-r-chow/) ## Andrew R. Chow Correspondent  Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source: Courtesy of Nat Friedman) Nat Friedman’s fingerprints can be found across the AI landscape. He and his close collaborator Daniel Gross run one of the world’s most powerful [chip clusters](https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/6310591/daniel-gross/) and a [GPU](https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/craigslist-for-gpu-clusters-launches-gpulistai-allows-you-to-rent-ai-gpu-clusters-by-the-hour) rental service. They invest hundreds of millions of dollars into rising AI companies like [Perplexity](https://www.wired.com/story/founder-perplexity-ai-sundar-pichai-competing-to-reinvent-search/) and ElevenLabs. Friedman is so well regarded in Silicon Valley that he was also reportedly [offered ](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/former-github-chief-nat-friedman-declined-openai-interim-ceo-role?rc=d8pcat)the interim CEO role at OpenAI after Sam Altman was briefly ousted last December. But perhaps the most interesting AI project that Friedman, the former CEO of GitHub, was involved in last year involved some ancient scrolls. Friedman spearheaded and bankrolled the Vesuvius Challenge, which prompted computer scientists to try to decode Roman scrolls that were buried under 20 meters of ash and mud when Mount Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago. The efforts were successful thanks to machine learning, and gave the world another glimpse into antiquity: an essay that explored the relationship between scarcity and pleasure. “I can't help but read it as a 2,000 year old blog post, arguing with another poster,” Friedman [told TIME in February](https://time.com/6691588/ancient-roman-scroll-decoded-ai/). “It's ancient Substack, and people are beefing with each other, and I think that's just amazing.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2024/7012789/nat-friedman/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2024/7012789/nat-friedman/"},"headline":"Nat Friedman","datePublished":"2024-09-05T11:20:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T11:54:22.741Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2024/7012789/nat-friedman/","keywords":["Tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt46c4fb3064612a2e/698a5a90457a528f3cd6ab7f/TIME100-AI-2024-SHAPERS_Nat-Friedman-NEW.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Andrew R. 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