Honoring the Bestof the Internet
Webby Person of the Year
About Webby Person of the Year
An individual or group of individuals who have instigated and catalyzed great achievement on the Internet.
The 30th Annual Webby Awards is excited to honor Claude as 2026 Webby Person of the Year, recognizing its profound impact on how people create, communicate, and engage with knowledge online. Developed by Anthropic, Claude represents a defining evolution in artificial intelligence, expanding how individuals and organizations interact with information, creativity, and problem-solving at a moment of rapid technological change. A “Person of the Year” shaped by millions of people using it, and part of a lineage that includes our 2011 Person of the Year, IBM Watson, marking a new chapter in the relationship between people and technology.
Claude has emerged as one of the leading AI systems shaping the modern Internet, powering work across writing, software development, research, and business operations, from everyday use to advanced coding environments like Claude Code. Its ability to engage with human language in nuanced, context-rich ways has enabled new forms of collaboration between people and machines, accelerating workflows while reshaping expectations around productivity and access to knowledge. In doing so, it has helped open the next chapter of computing, where intelligence is not just accessed, but actively collaborated with.
At the same time, Claude reflects a distinct approach to how advanced AI systems are built and deployed. Developed using Anthropic’s Constitutional AI framework, it is designed with an emphasis on safety, transparency, and human values, including safeguards that limit high-risk use cases even when doing so may constrain performance. For its role in advancing human–AI collaboration, expanding access to powerful tools, and helping shape a more thoughtful and responsible future for the Internet, it is our great privilege to honor Claude as Webby Person of the Year.
