Five years after a little-known company with a limited Google presence and a vanished website launched Artificial Intelligence (AI) Appreciation Day, others are beginning to stake their own claim to Thursday's observance.
While AI Appreciation Day has previously been a non-event, celebrated mostly by small AI companies, niche technology communities and enthusiasts, it started gaining broader recognition two years ago as GenAI became mainstream.
Last year, Emirates airline acknowledged the day with an AI-generated video, PC Gamer states, while 2026 has seen a growing number of consultancies, technology vendors and industry organisations also publish AI Appreciation Day commentary.
There is some mystery around how this day – which isn’t officially recognised by the United Nations – came into existence. It is widely attributed to be the creation of freelance advertising professional, Jason Kirton, who PC Gamer says doesn't run an AI company.
Awareness Days also attributes the source of the day to Kirton, who created it in 2021.
Kirton started a company called A.I. Heart LLC and he apparently marketed it by spending most of 2024 “living in a tent on a beach outside of SpaceX Starbase in Texas in the hopes of meeting Elon Musk to tell him about AI Appreciation Day,” says PC Gamer.
Mostly going unnoticed apart from those who live in the neighbourhood, Kirton pieced together a living by mowing lawns, helping at a roadside barbecue operation and working rocket launch events, PC Gamer reports.
Copycats and offshoots
Other sources say the day was created to advertise a film called “AI EVE”, which aimed to overturn the ‘Man vs Machine’ AI trope but was never made.
ChatGPT says that, once the A.I. Heart website disappeared, AI chatbots and blogs started filling in the void. “Some described A.I. Heart as an AI company, others as a smart technology firm, while many omitted Jason Kirton entirely. PC Gamer tested several chatbots and found they all got parts of the story wrong,” it told ITWeb.
Recently, nationalaiappreciationday.com, a live site run by MomentumTech, popped up and started promoting what it calls "the world's first global AI stories celebration”. It’s calling for people to celebrate their “real AI stories”. As of mid-morning, there were 62 of 200 spots open for storytelling.
Then there is aiappreciationday.org, launched in 2026 by Nathan Ricks, with the purpose of celebrating AI.
“I'm Nathan Ricks, founder of AI Appreciation Day. I believe how we define our relationship with AI is critical to the character and success of our species. That's why I started this movement.”
I’m alive
Website nationaldayarchives.com says AI Appreciation Day aims to recognise AI's positive contributions to society, while encouraging debate about its ethical development and responsible use.
“AI presents an opportunity for a more advanced future with breakthroughs in science, technology, healthcare, etc. However, great care, education and respect need to be at the core of AI advancement,” the website says. It calls for more ethical debates “on a [US] national level before an advanced AI is created that could become conscious, thus a sentient being”.
The website adds that there needs to be “clear ways of determining AI sentience” while “clear regulations, laws and rights need to be explored and firmed up before we accidentally or purposely invent a conscious AI”.
For those wanting to observe the day, National Day Archives suggests using the hashtag #WOAII ("Without AI, I...") followed by something you would miss without the technology.
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