❯ TIME names its 300 Best Inventions of 2026, with new Apple CEO John Ternus on the cover

300 inventions on the listTIME published its Best Inventions of 2026, naming 300 inventions across fields including artificial intelligence, accessibility and agriculture. The AI category includes high-density cooling for multistory data centers and an autonomous AI agent “that can’t break containment.”

Ternus on the coverThe cover subject is John Ternus, who took over as Apple CEO on September 1. TIME’s interview centers on Apple’s first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, priced from $1,999. The piece describes Ternus as a detail-oriented engineer who was little known outside the company before becoming a senior hardware executive in 2021.

AI tools on the list tooGoogle DeepMind announced that SynthID, its AI content watermarking technology, made the list, having watermarked more than 180 billion images and videos to help people tell AI-generated content from other media. TIME says all rankings are made by its editorial team; some companies may have paid an application fee to be considered, which does not affect inclusion.

▮ SIGNALOn the year’s inventions list, tools for identifying and constraining AI sit alongside AI itself, and keeping AI in check has become an innovation category of its own.