An email arrived almost by chance led to the discovery of an unexpected celebration: National AI Day. Who is behind it? Marlo Anderson, founder of National Day Calendar, decided to establish this observance for July 16, bypassing the usual process that sees over 30,000 requests for new national days each year.
The founder of National Day Calendar prioritized AI as a personal choice
Anderson told me on the phone, two days before the event, that he made a deliberate decision: "We just figured having an AI day would be appropriate." While he could not recall past requests, he admitted to designating it himself, leveraging his position. His familiarity with artificial intelligence dates back twenty years, and he now uses it to automate business processes, such as uploading daily videos to Video Elephant. With AI, a workload that would take two weeks manually is completed in just a day or two.
Sponsored Protocol
AI as a daily tool to simplify repetitive tasks
Anderson uses various platforms: Claude for app development and website maintenance, ChatGPT Voice for brainstorming, and Gemini at the North Dakota offices. A firm believer in AI's positive potential, he stated, "If we have an agentic AI that can handle that workload for us, we should probably do it."
The debate around AI: backlash and environmental and medical benefits
When asked about criticism, Anderson compared the pushback to that for "National Cheese Sandwich Day" or "French Fry Day." While aware of the environmental impact, he is convinced the benefits outweigh the risks, citing remarkable progress in medicine. He used an analogy with horses and cars: "A hundred years ago, most people rode horses, which were dangerous; early cars weren't much better, but today almost everyone prefers cars. We are at the same crossroads with Artificial Intelligence."
Sponsored Protocol
Why AI deserves a national day while other fads do not
Compared to passing fads like goat yoga, Anderson explained that AI has long-term prospects: "Twenty years from now, no one will know or talk about goat yoga, but twenty years from now, they will be talking about AI." The conversation around AI has become so pervasive that in 2025, "everyone is probably using it, whether they know it or not." For this reason, he decided to establish National AI Day, celebrated on July 16, an invitation to reflect on the technology's present and future impact.
Sponsored Protocol
To explore AI's role in other sectors, read our article on Google Gemma 4 E2B for TPU on Pixel and the legal case of former employees suing Meta for AI-driven layoffs. For an authoritative external source, see the original article on TechRadar.
