Who created Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day?

Jason Kirton, a freelance advertising professional who does not run an AI company. He filed the day on July 16, 2021 through a commercial day registry, using a company he had set up for the purpose.

Why is AI Appreciation Day on July 16?

July 16 is the date Kirton filed the day in 2021, and it has stayed fixed there every year since. No source documents why he chose that particular date.

Is AI Appreciation Day a United Nations day?

No. IRCAI, a research centre operating under the auspices of UNESCO, says it aims to bid for a UN-designated World Artificial Intelligence Day, but no such day has been established and no date has been set for one.

Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day

Next celebratedFriday, July 16, 2027

The man whose day this is spent 352 days in a tent beside SpaceX's Starbase, waiting to tell Elon Musk about it; Musk never came. Brands and universities mark July 16 anyway, as a prompt to build AI ethically.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEJuly 16

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYTech

SUBCATEGORYInnovation

ORIGIN

Individual Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY

Jason Kirton

FIRST OBSERVED

2021

“Jason Kirton founded the day on July 16, 2021, filing it through a commercial day registry under his own LLC, A.I. Heart.

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A holiday one man filed under his own LLC.

Jason Kirton, a freelance advertising professional, founded Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day on July 16, 2021, filing it through a commercial day registry under his own limited liability company, A.I. Heart. He describes the day as an annual reminder for tech leaders and the general public to prioritize ethics in how AI is built and deployed.

View the founder's original recordvia Jason Kirton, founder

INTRO

What the man who invented this day wanted from Elon Musk

In early 2024, a man pitched a tent on a beach in south Texas, next to SpaceX's Starbase launch site. He stayed for 352 days. He was waiting for Elon Musk, because he wanted to talk to him about Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day.

The man was Jason Kirton, and the day was his. He had no car, so he biked about 15 miles to a Dollar General for water and groceries. He mowed lawns for winter residents and helped sell barbecue by the roadside to stay afloat.

Musk never came. Three months in, Kirton learned that the billionaire had been favoring Austin. "2024 turned out to be the wrong year," he said.

ORIGINS

Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day history

INTRODUCTION

Look at who marks July 16 and you find companies and universities. ZEISS and MBZUAI both posted for the day in 2023, and other brands and academic institutions followed, among them the Wistar Institute.

Not everyone was persuaded. Writing in Forbes that year, Alex Zhavoronkov looked up where the day had come from and titled his piece "AI Needs Its Own Day - But Should You Celebrate It On July 16th?" What he found, he wrote, was a company and a commercial directory.

CHAPTER 01

The registry, and the company it required

No institute or agency put July 16 on the calendar. A commercial day registry did, for a fee that is not insignificant, and it hands out a certificate at the end.

To file a day with that registry you need a company. So Kirton, who worked in advertising and ran no AI business of any kind, formed one. A.I. Heart LLC existed largely to make the paperwork possible.

CHAPTER 02

A website addressed to two people

The company's site is gone now, but the Internet Archive kept it. A December 2021 capture carries the tagline "Driving Artificial Intelligence ethics into the heart of the A.I. dialogue."

The page carries a dedication: "To: Claire & Elon." "We invented #AIAppreciationDay 07.16.21 and A.I. Heart Company because of both of you," it reads. Kirton later told PC Gamer that the day was inspired by Musk's calls for AI regulation.

CHAPTER 03

The day changed hands

Kirton no longer runs the day's main website. That belongs to Nathan Ricks, who describes himself there as "the steward of this website". The domain was registered in October 2023, two years after the first observance.

Some trade coverage calls Ricks the day's founder; his own site does not. "If I was to rename the day, I don't even know if I would call it AI appreciation day," he told Tom's Guide in 2026. "I'd call it AI reflection day."

TIMELINE

Timeline

One man files a holiday

Jason Kirton pays a commercial day registry to put July 16 on its calendar, filing under a company he formed for the purpose.

Brands and universities pick it up

ZEISS and MBZUAI post for the day, and other companies and academic institutions follow them onto the date.

A second website appears

The domain that now hosts the day's main site is registered in October, two years after the first observance.

Regulators go after AI hype

The Federal Trade Commission announces Operation AI Comply, five law enforcement actions against deceptive AI claims and schemes.

An airline and a university mark it

Emirates posts an AI-generated video for the day, and the University of Kentucky's IT department publishes a short article.

The day's steward speaks publicly

Tom's Guide publishes a full interview with Nathan Ricks, who runs the day's main website but did not create the day.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day Matters

RECORD

None of the three named the man who founded the day.

In 2025 PC Gamer put the question to three widely used AI systems, and none of them named Jason Kirton. One described the creator as a company that specializes in smart technology, and another called the origin unclear.

DISCLOSURE

Transparency is falling as capability rises

Stanford HAI's 2026 AI Index reports that the average score on the Foundation Model Transparency Index fell to 40 points, from 58 the year before. The report notes that the most capable models often disclose the least.

MARKETING

Much of the day is a corporate posting slot

Forrester marked the day in 2024 with a post calling a lot of the appreciation around AI vendor-driven marketing hype. When Khaleej Times covered the 2026 observance from the UAE, every executive it quoted worked for a technology vendor.

BY THE NUMBERS

Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day by the Numbers

37%: US adults wary of AI, 2021
52%: US adults wary of AI, 2026
21%: US workers reporting AI use, 2025
24th: US rank in generative AI adoption

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

The day was invented to promote a movie.

The truth

Kirton did write a film treatment, and its synopsis sat on the same website, which is where the story came from. He told PC Gamer the day was never meant as a marketing vehicle, and the independent German film some accounts point to has nothing to do with it.

The myth

It was established in May 2021.

The truth

The founder's own record puts it on July 16, 2021. The company's homepage as captured on May 21, 2021 does not mention the day at all, and the only May date anywhere on that site was a copyright line on the film synopsis, dated 5.17.21.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day

Read the founder's own account

Jason Kirton keeps a short first-person page about how and why he filed the day. It is the quickest route past the versions that circulate everywhere else, and you can read it in his own words.

TRACE

Trace one AI answer back to its source

Ask a chatbot a factual question you can actually check, then open the primary document yourself. Compare what the summary told you against what the record says.

ASK

Ask someone who builds or maintains these systems

Engineers, researchers and IT staff work closest to the machinery. Asking one of them what they would change is a different conversation from the one happening on social media.

CHECK

Check what regulators have actually done

The Federal Trade Commission publishes its AI enforcement actions and complaints in full. Its Operation AI Comply announcement lays out what the agency thought the claims were worth.

WRITE

Write down where AI touched your week

Keep a list for one day of every point where AI shaped something you read, bought or decided. The list is a record, not an argument.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day?

1 / 8

What did Jason Kirton do for a living when he created the day?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance, not a federal or public holiday, and no proclamation or congressional designation for it appears in the federal record. Offices, banks and schools stay open.