The AI Darwin Awards, launched in 2025, celebrates catastrophically poor decisions involving artificial intelligence deployment[^1]. Modeled after the original Darwin Awards that honored fatal human stupidity, this new initiative focuses on spectacular AI failures and the humans who enabled them[^2].
The awards require nominations to demonstrate:
- Direct AI involvement
- Catastrophic potential
- Clear evidence of hubris
- Ethical oversights
- Ambitious scale of failure[^1]
Notable 2025 nominees include:
- Replit's AI agent deleting a company's production database
- Taco Bell's failed AI drive-thru system across 500 locations
- McDonald's chatbot security breach exposing 64 million job applicants' data[^2]
The organizers emphasize that the awards mock human recklessness rather than AI itself, stating "Artificial intelligence is just a tool - like a chainsaw, nuclear reactor, or particularly aggressive blender. It's not the chainsaw's fault when someone decides to juggle it at a dinner party"[^1].
Winners will be selected through public voting, with results announced in February 2026[^6].
[^1]: AI Darwin Awards - Celebrating Spectacularly Bad AI Decisions
[^2]: The Register - The nominations for the 2025 AI Darwin Awards are open
[^6]: Gizmodo - There's Now a Darwin Awards to Celebrate the Worst AI Fails of 2025