Influencers draw backlash for attending OpenAI’s first luxury trip
TechCrunch AI Dominic-Madori Davis
OpenAI flew influencers to a fancy upstate NY retreat with beekeeping and painting classes to promote its products. The internet is not having it, given AI's environmental costs and job-loss fears.
OpenAI just learned that farm-to-table dinners and beekeeping classes don't play well when your industry is also gobbling up power for data centers. Over the weekend, a small group of influencers attended what OpenAI branded "Summer Club," a retreat in upstate New York featuring wellness activities, painting workshops, and tutorials on using OpenAI's products. The content that came out of it looked like standard influencer fare: soft lighting, cozy vibes, someone building a website on camera.
But the comment sections told a different story. Viewers accused one creator of selling her soul for a hotel room. Another got peppered with requests to do a get-ready-with-me video, except touring a data center instead of getting dressed. A third influencer appears to have quietly deleted her trip video after TechCrunch reached out, though she left up other content from the retreat that doesn't mention OpenAI by name.
The timing made it worse. OpenAI is reportedly finalizing a $500 billion deal to build a data center in Ohio, and it holds a $200 million Pentagon contract, both of which sit uncomfortably next to footage of influencers relaxing at a luxury resort. One person who left a critical comment told TechCrunch that flaunting a $5,000-a-night suite isn't a great look while the broader conversation about AI's energy use and social costs keeps intensifying. It's not exactly subtle irony: a nature retreat funded by a company whose growth depends on massive amounts of electricity and water.
OpenAI isn't the only lab courting creators this way. Anthropic reportedly threw an influencer dinner for Claude, and Microsoft flew Copilot influencers to the Super Bowl back in February. Neither sparked anything close to this reaction. OpenAI even hired Charles Porch, formerly of Instagram, as its first VP of global creative partnerships in February specifically to build these creator relationships and run what he called a listening tour on how people actually use AI tools.
What's different this time seems to be the mood, not the strategy. One influencer told LinkedIn she never expected backlash, insisting she just wanted to share behind-the-scenes tips. She clearly underestimated how many people already view AI companies with suspicion. OpenAI hasn't responded to requests for comment, and given the tone of the internet right now, it's not obvious what they'd even say.
My take
This is what happens when a company tries to sell warm, fuzzy content while its balance sheet depends on Ohio megawatts and Pentagon contracts. Influencer marketing works great for sneakers and skincare, not for a technology whose critics are asking pointed questions about water use and job displacement. OpenAI's PR instincts here were tone-deaf in a very specific, very 2025 way: they treated AI like a lifestyle brand right when the public started treating it like a utility company they don't trust.
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