Issue No. 2 · September 2026
    iFAMOUSby iFANN

    The monthly record of fame.

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    Issue No. 2 · September 2026

    The Most Famous AI Leaders and Researchers in the World

    Top 69 of 69 ranked · September 2026 · See today's live standing →

    Everyone, living or dead, on one scale: 54 of the 69 listed are living.

    First issue under methodology v5.70. Movement begins with the next issue frozen under the same version.

    The Most Famous AI Leaders and Researchers in the World is the September 2026 edition of the ranking, frozen and published by iFAMOUS, the monthly journal of the iFANN Global Fame Rankings.

    RankNameScore
    1
    Sam Altman
    UScelebrityAlive
    20.6
    2
    Alan Turing
    GBcelebrity
    18.4
    3
    Dario Amodei
    UScelebrityAlive
    16.2
    4
    Jensen Huang
    TWcelebrityAlive
    15.7
    5
    Sergey Brin
    UScelebrityAlive
    14.5
    614.3
    7
    Yuval Noah Harari
    ILcelebrityAlive
    13.2
    8
    Demis Hassabis
    GBcelebrityAlive
    12.3
    9
    Grigori Perelman
    RUcelebrityAlive
    11.9
    10
    Geoffrey Hinton
    GBcelebrityAlive
    10.7
    11
    Yoshua Bengio
    CAcelebrityAlive
    9.5
    12
    Sonam Wangchuk
    INpublic figureAlive
    8.9
    13
    Paul Erdős
    HUcelebrity
    8.9
    14
    Max Born
    DEcelebrity
    8.2
    15
    Nick Bostrom
    SEcelebrityAlive
    8.2
    16
    Lee Sedol
    KRcelebrityAlive
    7.2
    17
    Greg Brockman
    UScelebrityAlive
    7.1
    18
    Daniela Amodei
    UScelebrityAlive
    7.0
    19
    Liang Wenfeng
    CNcelebrityAlive
    6.6
    20
    David Chalmers
    AUcelebrityAlive
    6.5
    21
    Maryna Viazovska
    UAcelebrityAlive
    6.4
    22
    Svante Pääbo
    SEcelebrityAlive
    6.3
    23
    Michael Levitt
    ZAcelebrityAlive
    6.1
    24
    Mike Krieger
    BRcelebrityAlive
    6.0
    255.9
    26
    Jacob Coxon
    GBcelebrityAlive
    5.9
    275.7
    28
    Yann Le Cun
    FRcelebrityAlive
    5.6
    29
    Andrej Karpathy
    SKcelebrityAlive
    5.6
    30
    Kai-Fu Lee
    TWcelebrityAlive
    5.4
    31
    Audrey Tang
    TWpoliticianAlive
    5.4
    32
    Mario Molina
    MXcelebrity
    5.3
    335.2
    345.2
    35
    Yuri Oganessian
    RUcelebrityAlive
    5.1
    36
    Ngô Bảo Châu
    VNcelebrityAlive
    5.1
    37
    Paul Davies
    AUcelebrityAlive
    5.0
    38
    Freeman Dyson
    GBcelebrity
    4.9
    39
    Ilya Sutskever
    CAcelebrityAlive
    4.9
    40
    Amos Tversky
    ILpublic figure
    4.9
    41
    Klaus von Klitzing
    DEcelebrityAlive
    4.9
    42
    Fei-Fei Li
    CNcelebrityAlive
    4.9
    43
    Mira Murati
    ALcelebrityAlive
    4.7
    44
    Ardem Patapoutian
    LBcelebrityAlive
    4.6
    454.5
    46
    Syukuro Manabe
    JPcelebrityAlive
    4.5
    47
    Timothy Gowers
    GBcelebrityAlive
    4.5
    48
    Federico Faggin
    ITcelebrityAlive
    4.5
    49
    Dan Shechtman
    ILcelebrityAlive
    4.4
    50
    Raymond Kurzweil
    celebrityAlive
    4.3
    51
    Theodor W. Hänsch
    DEcelebrityAlive
    4.3
    52
    Tasuku Honjo
    JPcelebrityAlive
    4.3
    534.2
    54
    Robert Langlands
    CAcelebrityAlive
    4.1
    55
    Peter Doherty
    AUcelebrityAlive
    4.0
    56
    Leopold Aschenbrenner
    DEcelebrityAlive
    4.0
    57
    Luciano Floridi
    ITcelebrityAlive
    4.0
    583.9
    59
    Yemi Osinbajo
    NGpoliticianAlive
    3.9
    60
    Robin Li
    CNcelebrityAlive
    3.8
    61
    Daniel Kokotajlo
    UScelebrityAlive
    3.7
    62
    Werner Arber
    CHcelebrityAlive
    3.7
    63
    Avi Wigderson
    ILcelebrityAlive
    3.7
    64
    Jared Kaplan
    UScelebrityAlive
    3.6
    65
    Eugene Roshal
    RUcelebrityAlive
    3.6
    66
    Raj Reddy
    INcelebrityAlive
    3.5
    67
    Isamu Akasaki
    JPcelebrity
    3.5
    68
    Jean Tirole
    FRpublic figureAlive
    3.3
    69
    Jeff Dean
    celebrityAlive
    3.3

    About this list

    This list ranks the most famous AI leaders and researchers in the world as of September 2026, by overall global fame rather than one month's attention. It is the top 69 of 69 names the rankings measured in this sector, frozen as the permanent record of that edition. This is the standard reading: everyone, living or dead, on one scale. 54 of the 69 listed are living; the Alive reading restricts the same ranking to living people.

    Sam Altman is No. 1 on this list for September 2026. Behind Sam Altman come Alan Turing and Dario Amodei.

    What famous means here

    Fame, in iFAMOUS, is how widely the world knows a name: how recognisable a person's name, face or work is, and how well people know who they are. It is assessed from extensive historical and current public data, some of it reaching back more than twenty years, and it is not merit, talent, importance or popularity on iFANN. The rankings model real-world global fame, not internet fame; the data is the instrument, not the subject. Activity on iFANN itself is excluded.

    The month in the title is the date of this edition, not the period measured. The list is a snapshot of overall fame as it stood when the issue was frozen: a name does not lose its place because one month was quiet, and a trending moment alone does not put a name here. Trending attention is published separately on ifann.net.

    How the list was ranked

    The iFANN Global Fame Rankings combine worldwide Wikipedia readership across languages, worldwide news coverage and search interest anchored against stable reference names, with search history reaching back to 2004. A twelve-month baseline sits behind the current reading and short-lived surges are capped, so the list reflects durable recognition rather than one week of headlines. Rankings are computed daily on ifann.net and frozen on the second day of the following month as that month's issue; a published issue never changes.

    About AI

    AI is one of the sectors the journal ranks every month, alongside every country, origin and region list in this issue. Sector lists use the same rankings and the same scale as The 100, so a name can be compared across sectors and against the world. AI labs, models, founders and the broader industry conversation.

    Powered by iFANN

    iFAMOUS is published by iFANN and powered by the iFANN Global Fame Rankings v5.70. Today's live standing for this list is on ifann.net; the journal freezes it once a month so it can be cited permanently.

    Related searches: most famous AI leaders and researchers in the world 2026, top AI leaders and researchers September 2026, AI leaders and researchers fame ranking, most famous AI leaders and researchers alive.

    Cite as
    "Sam Altman, No. 1 on The Most Famous AI Leaders and Researchers in the World", iFAMOUS No. 2 (September 2026), ifamous.org

    This scope in the journal

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