LOL! A former venture capitalist is trying to launch an AI Appreciation Day he believes is crucial

[highplainsdem]

Ran across a short article on this from Engadget:

https://www.engadget.com/2213147/what-are-your-plans-for-ai-appreciation-day/

What are your plans for AI Appreciation Day?
The best way to celebrate AI Appreciation Day is to not.
by
Jackson Chen
July 12, 2026 4:30 pm EST


It's AI Appreciation Day on July 16 and we're all left wondering who asked for this. In name, it's about as serious as the marketing stunts that gave us gems like National Hot Dog Day or National Doughnut Day. In practice, the day calls for the intentional recognition of "the most consequential technology in human history" instead of simply claiming some free food like with other fake holidays. While we can acknowledge the impact that AI has made on society and industries so far, it doesn't warrant its own day of dedication.

Going off the website, the proper way to celebrate AI Appreciation Day includes suggestions like "thank a person who builds or maintains AI," "talk to a child or skeptic about it," "sign the pledge and put the day on your calendar." As satirical as these ideas sound, they're apparently very much real recommendations. 

-snip-

Engadget recommends celebrating humans and nature instead of an "AI slop of an excuse for a holiday." And I like their suggestions that you talk to real friends instead of chatbots, buy a real artist's work (I'd add real writers and real musicians), and swim in a natural body of water before data centers wreck it (I'd recommend checking that it's still safe to swim in first, but data centers will definitely cause much more damage to the environment, very quickly).

Engadget linked to the website promoting AI Appreciation Day - aiappreciationday-dot-org - but didn't explain which person or company was behind this.

So I checked it out. And saw it had been set up - with assistance from AI, of course - by someone who says his background is in investment banking and venture capital, but who now has an AI startup to sell companies teams of AI agents.

He identifies one AI agent - he's given it a human first name - that he used to build the website, and says it isn't a tool but a collaborator (wrong), and he includes a statement about himself from his AI tool.

He refers to AI as a "new and powerful entity" and warns that it's a "dangerous" mindset to believe consciousness requires a soul or biological mechanism. He posted a blog message four months ago making it clear he believes AI will surpass human intelligence and that it will have feelings and subjective experiences, so it's essential that we empathize with it and appreciate it. He says humanity will "simply need to find a new role" when it is "trumped by the power of artificial intelligence." He apparently has absolutely no doubt that it will be.

He isn't at all clear about what humanity's new role should be.

He does say that by appreciation he does NOT mean worshiping or fearing - unless it's "warranted at the moment" - or "being purely submissive to AI." And his wording there set off alarm bells, since he seems to be suggesting that being at least somewhat submissive to AI might be warranted, and maybe AI being a threat to humanity might be warranted if humans don't accept their role as inferior to AI.

To me, he sounds like someone both addicted to AI and deluded by it, viewing it as a god or superior being that will be benevolent as long as we appreciate/love it.

I've mentioned before that some AI bros have a cultlike belief that after they create an AI with superhuman abilities, it will reward its creators, even with godlike powers and immortality via merging with AI.

Essentially, for AI cultists, humans become acolytes of AI, devoted fans/followers/assistants in subservient roles. Submissive but appreciating their submissive role, viewing their sumissiveness to a superior as somehow empowering or rewarding them. I've seen some AI cultists suggest that humanity's most important purpose is to bring superintelligent AI into existence.

I don't know how much of a background in organized religion this AI devotee has, but his LinkedIn mentions he went to Brigham Young University, where most students are LDS members. One of the school's unofficial mottoes, according to Wikipedia, is "The glory of God is intelligence." And submissiveness is a key LDS teaching (I'd vaguely remembered reading that long ago, just verified it with a quick search).

Anyway, if anyone encourages you to observe AI Appreciation Day, this post will explain a little of what's behind it.

Like Engadget, I hope you'll appreciate humans instead of AI.

The AI devotee behind AI Appreciation Day doesn't want humans to view AI as competition, though he's sure we will be "trumped by the power of artificial intelligence."

And AI is being very deliberately promoted as competition for humans by AI companies and acolytes alike. He's both, with his AI startup peddling AI agents to replace human workers.

IMO, no humans should EVER be at all submissive, let alone appreciative, in this stupid and greed-and-delusion-driven competition by AI companies to make money by convincing people that humans are and should be inferior to AI.

[SheltieLover]

1. 🖕 to ai appreciation day

Ai is a perpetual pain in the ass from friends unemployed because of it to automated attendants to perpetual slop posted here & on you tube, not to mention the artists suffering for theft of their intellectual property & the brain rot...

Ty for sharing.

[lame54]

2. Hold up 11 fingers if you agree

[Initech]

3. Nah. Fuck AI!