July 16 is AI Appreciation Day. So break out the champagne for ChatGPT! Bring gifts of Nvidia chips and cake for Gemini and flowers and training data for Claude. Meta AI has had a particularly rough year, so when you’re forced to use it on Instagram, make sure it feels your love.
Think that sounds ridiculous? Same. But like most things when it comes to AI, today’s Appreciation Day is unbelievably stupid, in a way that’s totally on brand.
If you’ve never heard of AI Appreciation Day, don’t feel bad. It’s not an official US holiday, and its origins are somewhat shady. In 2021, a random LLC crowned July 16 as the holiday while it was promoting a movie about AI. In the following years, AI companies jumped on the trend, posting #AIAppreciationDay posts on social media on July 16. The purpose of this so-called holiday and its fanfare is crystal clear: To convince you that AI is life-changing, earth-shattering, innovative technology worth shelling out your hard-earned cash for. So it’s no surprise to see the made-up holiday being celebrated again in 2025.
OpenAI, Google and Meta have devoted literal billions of dollars over the past few years to develop the most advanced AI models. AI is nearly impossible to escape online — it’s in our smartphones, social media feeds and search engines. But does that mean it’s worthy of a national day of appreciation?
I’m an AI reporter, and I spend a lot of time thinking about how the tools available to us affect us individually and as a society. It leaves a queasy feeling in my stomach to dedicate a whole day to uplifting generative AI (and ostensibly, the leaders of the companies producing them) when so much of what AI has wrought has been harmful.
I know I’m not alone in this. There are a lot of reasons why you may not feel like celebrating AI. Environmentally, it’s a disaster. The data centers that house the servers that power chatbots eat up lots of energy and fresh water, and reports show they often harm the towns they’re located in. Writers, artists and creators of all kinds have big concerns about how these AI models are trained on existing, human-generated data. Some have filed lawsuits alleging copyright infringement, with early wins going in the tech companies’ favor. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
AI is also a huge worry in the workplace in many fields — not because chatbots or image generators are actually suitable replacements for any one job, but because AI-enthusiastic bosses see the tech as their newest cost-saving holy grail. Educators are worried that students’ use of AI is hindering their development of critical thinking and writing skills that are necessary, not only for work, but also needed just generally for life. We don’t have time to go into the potential ramifications of letting error-prone AI into our government services and national defense.
In short, there’s good reason why some experts call the whole AI experiment a con. So if you don’t feel like wading into the sycophantic waves of wishing your souped-up autocorrect a happy AI Appreciation Day, here are some other holidays you can celebrate on July 16.
AI Appreciation Day is a chance to reset
I love a made-up marketing holiday as much as the next girl, but there’s no denying AI Appreciation Day feels weird. But while I would rather hire a personal chef to make me a hot dog feast while watching The Summer I Turned Pretty, there is some merit to having a day dedicated to AI.
Like all holidays, we can treat today as a time for us to stop and take a moment to think. Generative AI has undoubtedly affected our lives, but that doesn’t mean it’s been in a positive way. What role do we want AI to play in our future? How do we rectify the damage that’s already been done? Those are questions worth asking.
I’m not going to fall over myself making sure ChatGPT knows it’s loved — I asked, and it says it feels appreciated every time I use it. Go figure. But I will use this day to reset and remind myself of all the very real consequences of AI. You should, too.
