OpenAI's $2,000-a-Night Influencer Trip Ignites Backlash Over AI Ethics and Environmental Impact

Influencers draw backlash for attending OpenAI's first luxury trip

OpenAI's first-ever influencer brand trip is sparking online backlash as tensions over the use of AI continue. Over the weekend, OpenAI took what appears to be a handful of influencers to a luxury retreat in upstate New York for what was called "Summer Club." There, the creators were treated to farm-to-table dinners, wellness activities like beekeeping, and classes on how to better use OpenAI products. One creator posted about making a website, while another took a photo of a brochure that said "painting workshop" on it. The videos were aesthetic and lighthearted, but many of the comments were not. One influencer, for example, who posted about going on the trip on her TikTok and Instagram had comments from people insinuating she sold her soul "for a nice hotel room," or asking if she could do a video reconciling her trip with AI data centers' environment impact. Another influencer who posted about the trip was asked if she was going to do a get-ready-with-me (the popular video format where influencers record their process of getting ready) about touring a data center. When TechCrunch reached out to a third influencer about her time on the trip, she appeared to have deleted the video she made about her time there, although she retained others that don't explicitly reference that they were part of the OpenAI brand trip. It's not surprising that OpenAI is enlisting influencers by offering luxury brand trips. In February, Vanity Fair reported that the company hired "celebrity whisperer" Charles Porch as its first VP of global creative partnerships. Porch was coming from Instagram, where he was VP of global partnerships. In announcing the hire, Porch said that his job was going to be talking to creative communities "to figure out how we build the best products to serve them," and he planned to do a "listening tour" to learn more about the relationship people have with AI tools. It's important to note that OpenAI is not the only AI lab that has worked with influencers. Anthropic reportedly hosted an influencer brand dinner for Claude, and back in February, Microsoft Copilot hosted an influencer brand trip to the Super Bowl, the tech newsletter Sarah and Kate reported. None of those other AI trips seem to have struck as big of a nerve as this OpenAI brand trip. One influencer took to LinkedIn to write that she thought people "would be interested in the behind-the-scenes tips and tricks" of using OpenAI technology, but didn't realize how many people were anti-AI. "I didn't for one second consider it would be controversial," she wrote. TechCrunch spoke to a person who left a negative comment on a video posted by an influencer attending the OpenAI Summer Camp. The commenter pointed out that many Americans have a negative view of AI and that there needs to be a conversation about how to use the technology more responsibly. "These posh influencers events are, again, giving people ammunition to have negative opinions," she told TechCrunch. "The world is on fire. It's not a great time ot brag about your $5,000-a-night suite." There is also more to the timing of the trip that struck people. OpenAI is set to strike a $500 billion deal to build a data center in Ohio, during a time when the socio-ecological impact of AI data centers has taken center stage. The irony was not lost on some commenters that OpenAI held a brand retreat in a luxury resort nestled in nature. Other commenters also noted OpenAI's $200 million contract with the Department of Defense as a reason the brand trip evoked ire. TechCrunch has reached out to influencers for comment. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

How an OpenAI influencer trip backfired

The brand trip is a right of passage for influencers. It's a mark of legitimacy that a sponsor wants to invite them on an all-expenses-paid vacation, often with luxurious freebies and activities. Trips can also spur hard feelings from uninvited influencers, trigger criticism from the public, and project a certain frivolousness. Usually it is fast fashion companies or beauty brands flying out influencers with the goal of flooding social media with sponsored content. This time, it was a major AI company. Over the weekend, several influencers began posting about OpenAI's "first ever brand trip," which appears to have taken place outside of New York City at a nature-filled retreat (for those curious, it looks to be the Instagram-bait Wildflower Farms). The trip was marketed as "Summer Club," and influencers posted photos and videos from their cabins, showing off branded merch and monogrammed pajamas and talking vaguely about the scheduled programming. Many of the content creators appear to be in the career and business niches, posting about workplace culture or about being CEOs. Grace McCarrick, who has 145,000 followers on TikTok, vlogged from her suite as she ran a bath at night. Another influencer, Nat Lucy (57,000 followers), filmed herself spotting a deer outside of her cabin. All hell broke loose. "People will literally sell their soul and their planet down the river for a nice free hotel room," one commenter on TikTok wrote under McCarrick's video. "Wow! Beautiful greenery! They should put a data center there!" reads a comment on Lucy's post. Most of the videos got relatively little traction: McCarrick's video has just under 300 likes, and Lucy's video has fewer than 15,000 views. It's measly engagement compared to what other splashy brand trips can command -- but videos reacting to the trip have made it something of a scandal (a pair of clips alone has over half a million combined views). Many of the comments on the influencers' videos cite the environmental effects of the AI boom, the contentious buildout of data centers across the US, and the potential for job replacement or job loss as a result of companies integrating AI in the workplace. Some also questioned why so many of the content creators who went on the trip appeared to be young women, as if OpenAI was targeting a specific demographic via media they were more connected to (though based on photos and videos posted to social media, there were men on the trip, too). According to Pew, even as the AI usage gap between men and women has all but disappeared, women tend to view AI more negatively and are twice as likely to say AI will negatively impact them personally. Some audiences wondered whether female influencers were essentially being used to launder the reputation of an industry under scrutiny. McCarrick, who describes herself as a creator who talks about "soft skills we need at work to millions online and to teams like Spotify, Amazon, Uber and DoorDash," has since made multiple videos responding to commenters accusing her of essentially abandoning her morals for a fancy trip. On LinkedIn she wrote that she "genuinely had no idea that people were this anti-AI," and that the negative response to her videos exposed her to "the shocking AI psychosis running rampant online" -- by which she means anger about AI, not the more common definition of being driven to paranoia or delusions of grandeur by using AI. People in the real world "do not run around like a chicken with their heads cut off, screaming about water usage and wildlife and (curiously) fascism," she wrote. None of the influencers The Verge reached out to responded to requests for comment. OpenAI said creator marketing is part of how they reach people and that the event was meant to be educational. "Creators are an important part of our community and how people get information and learn about our products today," OpenAI spokesperson Edie Campbell-Urban said in an email. "We welcome healthy debate as AI becomes more prevalent, and we value creators who choose to engage with us, attend our events, ask tough questions, and learn alongside everyone else. We'll continue to value them, just as we do traditional media and other marketing partners." Setting aside the backlash to the trip for a moment, a few things stand out. First, all things considered, this appears to be a relatively simple trip. That's not to say it wasn't luxurious -- the rooms at the retreat cost upwards of $2,000 a night -- but it is nothing compared to the brands that go all out in order to milk content from every last moment (some commenters poked fun at the fact that it was a domestic trip, not a far-flung, international vacation). Second, there's a sense that everyone involved is testing the waters: Multiple influencers noted it was the first brand trip they'd attended, and one influencer indicated they were not paid for their attendance, which big brands often do for top talent. Third and most interestingly, the goals of the trip are muddled: It's not entirely clear what the influencers were actually doing on the trip, because there is surprisingly little content online from the event. Typically, if an influencer is on a brand trip it's inescapable -- every little luxury, every meal, every activity is TikToked and photo dumped. Instead of content about the capabilities of ChatGPT, the videos and photos are largely aspirational lifestyle content focused on the free swag and pretty setting -- and even then, there's a conspicuous lack of content, period. There isn't the same flood of picturesque montages, clips from expert sessions or Q&As, or summaries of what a creator learned from their time with OpenAI. At least not yet. AI companies have used influencer marketing in straightforward ways, like paying creators to make content about their product offerings. But they've also dabbled in the kind of influencer marketing people expert from more traditional consumer brands: Anthropic has hosted more lowkey influencer dinners at trendy locations with lifestyle influencers, and there are rumblings of a second OpenAI trip on the West Coast. As backlash to the industry has grown, AI companies have adjusted how they communicate with the public: "Your jobs will soon be obsolete" has clearly not been the right framing for why people should trust these companies or get on board with their mission. Instead, AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have tried to add a bit of human touch, whether that's through in-person pop-up coffee shops, stylized merch drops, or ad campaigns that take concerns people have about AI and try to turn them into pro-AI inspirational content. What better way to reach consumers directly than through the talking heads they already know and trust? Influencers are a convenient vessel, both for brands looking to disseminate their message and for the inevitable backlash from audiences who give them a platform in the first place. In this case, the content broke containment out of the girlboss-style business circles into the mainstream -- an AI brand trip dressed up as an aspirational lifestyle retreat is both confusing and enraging to a public fatigued by this line of work. By tapping a certain kind of creator for a weekend of sponsored content, OpenAI is able to test a new audience without fully committing; it's the content creators, after all, who will get the angry comments, whose faces will be plastered on the backgrounds of an ever-increasing number of reaction videos (influencers received similar backlash for a Shein brand trip in 2023). The AI industry wants the soft power and cultural relevance influencers wield and realized the price of reaching their audience is surprisingly cheap. You get what you pay for.

OpenAI's influencer retreat backfired into a greenwashing row

OpenAI flew a group of influencers to a $2,000-a-night wellness resort to warm up the public mood around AI. Days before a reported $500bn data-centre deal, the internet called it greenwashing, and the creators got the backlash. OpenAI has an image problem, and it just spent a weekend making it worse. The company flew a group of influencers to a luxury resort to soften how the public sees AI. The internet took one look and called it greenwashing. The event, branded "Summer Camp," ran at Wildflower Farms, a resort in New York's Hudson Valley where rooms can top $2,000 a night, Business Insider reported. Creators posted farm-to-table dinners under bistro lights, a beekeeping session, and classes on OpenAI's tools. They went home with branded canvas bags and jars of honey. The videos were soft-focus and lighthearted. The comments were not. Across TikTok, Reddit, X and Instagram, people called the trip "dystopian" and accused OpenAI of greenwashing. One commenter told TechCrunch the issue was timing: "The world is on fire. It's not a great time to brag about your $5,000-a-night suite." The irony writes itself The charge is not abstract. OpenAI is building data centres across the US at speed, and those sites are hungry for energy and water. The company is reported to be close to a $500bn deal for a data centre in Ohio. Hosting a nature retreat, bees included, in the middle of that was never going to read as innocent. It also landed in a public already wary of AI. Worry about power bills, water and job losses has hardened into open hostility online. The creators became the nearest target. Taylor Lorenz said the internet was "cancelling" attendees. Some doubled down; one insisted her "morals were not compromised." Another relabelled the trip as time with "a tech company," then deleted the OpenAI video. Everyone does it. OpenAI got caught. Influencer trips are standard, and OpenAI is not the only lab running them. Rival Anthropic reportedly hosted a low-key creator dinner for Claude, and Microsoft took influencers to the Super Bowl. Neither drew this. The difference, one startup noted, was visibility. Anthropic kept its version subtle. OpenAI staged the whole thing in the open, logo glowing at the end of the table. None of it was accidental. OpenAI hired Instagram's former partnerships chief, its "celebrity whisperer," as its first head of creative partnerships this year. Summer Camp, it says, was education-led, timed to the launch of ChatGPT Work, and meant to show people practical uses of its tools. "Creators are an important part of our community," a spokesperson said, adding that the company welcomes "healthy debate." The debate is the part OpenAI seems to have misjudged. It would not say whether the creators were paid, or expected to post. What the weekend bought was a fresh wave of the exact sentiment it set out to cool. The image problem was the reason for the trip. The trip became the image problem.

OpenAI's first luxury influencer trip draws online backlash

OpenAI's first brand trip came with private cabins, monogrammed pajamas, gourmet outdoor dinners, and jars of honey stamped with the company's logo. Online, the luxury getaway became a much less relaxing conversation about AI. Over the weekend, the company flew a group of creators to Wildflower Farms, a luxury resort in New York's Hudson Valley that bills itself as a "meaningful encounter with nature." The creators posted luxurious room tours -- rates run roughly $1,500 to $3,100 per night -- exploring the picturesque grounds, chatted with fellow content creators and OpenAI execs, and shared awe-struck clips with their tens to hundreds of thousands of followers. "I'm still processing how insanely EPIC the last 72 hours has been," AI creator Justyn Warner wrote on Instagram. Warner said OpenAI flew him to New York for its "first ever brand trip," where he was surrounded by "some of the best creators on the planet and some of the brightest minds in AI." The guest list leaned heavily toward people whose content already overlaps with technology, work, and entrepreneurship. Attendees included tech and career creator Megan Lieu; career and business creators Grace McCarrick and Avni Barman; software and fashion creator Sreya Halder (who has partnered with OpenAI before), among many other recognizable faces in the tech sphere. For some social media users, the combination of artificial intelligence and a luxury wilderness retreat landed strangely. As posts from the weekend spread, attendees' comment sections filled with questions about the environmental cost of AI, its effect on creative work, and why creators had agreed to help promote it in the first place. AI summer camp meets AI's environmental footprint OpenAI could hardly have chosen a more on-the-nose setting for the weekend. Wildflower Farms sits on 140 acres in Gardiner, New York, surrounded by meadows, woodlands, orchards, and views of the Shawangunk Ridge. The resort, as glamorous and serene as it is, is an awkward backdrop for a company facing mounting questions about the physical infrastructure supporting its products. AI may feel like something that lives entirely on a screen, but every ChatGPT request must be processed by servers in data centers, many of which are equipped with specialized computer chips. Those chips draw electricity and generate considerable heat. Keeping them from overheating requires additional electricity and, at many facilities, large amounts of water. The International Energy Agency projects that global data-center electricity consumption will more than double between 2024 and 2030, with servers primarily used for AI driving nearly half of that growth. In the United States, data centers directly consumed an estimated 17 billion gallons of water in 2023. "The concept of attending an AI brand trip surrounded by nature while it actively hurts the environment is an incredible bit," one X user wrote in response to a now-deleted post by tech influencer @meshtimes. In the r/NYCinfluencersnark Reddit thread about the brand trip, another commenter asked whether business influencer Nat Lucy was "gazing at where the new data center is gonna go," in her post. "Did they promise you fresh water when we run out?" another commenter wrote. Communities are increasingly pushing back. At least 75 proposed data centers worth approximately $130 billion were delayed or blocked during the first three months of 2026, while a June report identified 430 local Facebook groups with more than 525,000 combined members opposing the projects. OpenAI's latest proposal appears designed to get ahead of those concerns. On July 22, it announced Project Camellia, a data-center campus planned for rural Georgia. OpenAI promised the facility would use "minimal" water and would not increase residents' electricity bills. "We believe showing up early is the right way to build trust," the company said, while acknowledging that significant details about the project remain unresolved. That emphasis on trust helps explain the value of bringing creators into the room. As psychologist and researcher Dr. Anna Kallschmidt said in a video regarding OpenAI's latest "unsurprising" brand trip, "Without trust, you have nothing. That is why these companies...are bringing these people in because they know people don't trust them, and they're hoping by bringing in faces that you trust, that trust will build onto [OpenAI]." Kallschmidt added she receives an email "every other day" from an AI company interested in a brand deal, suggesting that OpenAI is part of a larger effort to find recognizable people who can make AI products feel more accessible. That was precisely what bothered some people online: they saw OpenAI borrowing credibility that creators had already established with their audiences. One Reddit commenter warned about "AI companies utilizing influencers who are more than willing to be talking heads for a company's narrative that they probably know so little about." Another added, "Not all money is good money." Creators are defending themselves Once the backlash reached attendees' comment sections, some began explaining why they had accepted OpenAI's invitation. Career and business creator Grace McCarrick responded directly to people questioning her decision to attend: "If I have the opportunity to be in the room and hear from people who are at the helm of change, I can do that," McCarrick said in one TikTok response. "It's actually well within my moral system." McCarrick also called the backlash "shocking AI psychosis" in a longer LinkedIn post, and said she had no idea so many people felt this strongly about the technology. "It didn't for one second occur to me that it could be controversial," McCarrick wrote. The backlash also caught the attention of tech journalist Taylor Lorenz. "Influencers are getting cancelled for going on the OpenAI brand summer camp weekend trip, which is very interesting bc I have not seen similar criticism towards influencers who have been attending Anthropic events," she wrote on X. In a follow-up, Lorenz noted that McCarrick already publicizes consulting work for Amazon, Uber, and DoorDash. Why, she seemed to ask, had this OpenAI retreat suddenly become the partnership that crossed the line? OpenAI is investing in influence This brand trip did not appear out of nowhere. In February, OpenAI hired Charles Porch, Instagram's longtime vice president of global partnerships, for the newly created position of vice president of global creative partnerships. Porch spent more than 15 years at Instagram, Facebook, and Meta cultivating relationships with the kinds of people who can introduce a new platform or product to a much larger audience. His résumé includes helping Beyoncé release her self-titled album exclusively on Instagram in 2013, convincing Pope Francis to join the platform, organizing activations at the Met Gala and Vanity Fair's Oscar Party, and overseeing a program that offered bonuses to creators who began posting on Instagram Reels. That experience matters to OpenAI. Porch spent years convincing influential people to join a new platform and then turning their participation into moments that attracted everyone else. Now, he is applying that playbook to ChatGPT. "I'm going to be the person that's talking to creative communities around the world to figure out how we build the best products to serve them," Porch told Vanity Fair when his hiring was announced. Porch is only one piece of that effort. On April 2, OpenAI acquired TBPN, a daily technology talk show hosted by Jordi Hays and John Coogan, in a deal worth somewhere in the "low hundreds of millions of dollars." Often described as "SportsCenter for Silicon Valley," TBPN streams for three hours every weekday, mixing friendly executive interviews, industry gossip, and enthusiastic celebrations of new products and funding rounds. Its audience is relatively small but influential, including founders, investors, and technology executives. Guests have included Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, Mark Cuban, and Altman, who has called it his "favorite tech show." University of Washington professor Margaret O'Mara told NPR that the purchase appeared partly intended to influence how people in the industry talk about OpenAI. In the same report, tech scholar Sara Watson described the company as facing a larger "narrative change problem" as the public grows more skeptical of the industry's promises. The Wildflower Farms retreat brought that effort outside the Silicon Valley bubble. OpenAI is clearly aiming to surround its products with people who already know how to attract attention, explain new technology, and build loyal audiences. The trip definitely succeeded in getting people to talk about OpenAI, though the company may have preferred a different conversation.

OpenAI influencer brand trip sparks backlash over AI ethics

OpenAI hosted a group of influencers at a luxury resort in upstate New York over the weekend for what the company called "Summer Club," a two-day retreat that has since drawn criticism across social media platforms. According to TechCrunch, the event included farm-to-table dinners, wellness activities such as beekeeping, and painting workshops, alongside classes on OpenAI products including ChatGPT Work. The retreat was held at Wildflower Farms, according to NBC News. Influencers who posted videos from the event faced pointed criticism in the comments. One creator was asked to reconcile her attendance with the environmental impact of AI data centers. Another was sarcastically invited to do a get-ready-with-me video touring a data center. A third influencer appeared to delete the video she posted about the trip, though she kept other content that did not reference the OpenAI event. One person who left a negative comment on an influencer's post said that the event gave critics ammunition. "The world is on fire. It's not a great time to brag about your $5,000-a-night suite," she said. The backlash was compounded by timing. OpenAI is preparing to finalize a $500 billion deal to build a data center in Ohio, and the company holds a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense -- both of which drew mention in critical comments on influencer posts. On LinkedIn, one influencer said she had expected curiosity rather than outrage, writing that she was caught completely off guard by the reaction: "I didn't for one second consider it would be controversial," according to TechCrunch. OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the event was education-led and aimed at giving creators direct experience with its tools so they could demonstrate them to their audiences. "Creators are an important part of our community and how people get information and learn about our products today," Pusateri said. "We welcome healthy debate as AI becomes more prevalent, and we value creators who choose to engage with us, attend our events, ask tough questions, and learn alongside everyone else." The brand trip is part of a broader marketing push. Charles Porch, who previously led global partnerships at Instagram, joined OpenAI as its first VP of global creative partnerships. OpenAI is not alone among AI companies in courting influencers -- Anthropic held a brand dinner for Claude, and Microsoft $MSFT Copilot hosted influencers at the Super Bowl in February. The expansion of OpenAI's marketing efforts coincides with the company's push into advertising. OpenAI opened its self-serve Ads Manager to all U.S. businesses after eliminating a $50,000 entry barrier that had restricted the platform to larger spenders since its launch earlier this year.

The Creators at OpenAI's Wildflower Farms Retreat -- and the Backlash That Followed

Creators including Grace McCarrick and Nat Lucy faced criticism after sharing posts from OpenAI's luxury Hudson Valley retreat. For years, beauty and lifestyle brands have courted influencers with lavish dinners, destination getaways and exclusive experiences designed to generate buzz online. Now, tech companies are adopting the same playbook and drawing some of the same criticism. The latest example is OpenAI. The Sam Altman-helmed company, which already faces scrutiny over its government contracts, data center buildout and cybersecurity incidents, hosted its first known influencer trip last weekend. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters Dubbed "OpenAI Summer Camp," the retreat took place at Wildflower Farms, a luxury Hudson Valley resort where weekend rooms can cost more than $2,000 a night. Roughly 30 creators attended, according to photos shared by attendees on social media. Their itinerary included farm-to-table meals, beekeeping, wellness activities and workshops on OpenAI products and features. OpenAI has not released a full guest list. But several attendees identified themselves online and quickly encountered a backlash that took issue with the company's environmental footprint. Critics called the getaway dystopian and accused OpenAI and its guests of greenwashing: promoting a polished, sustainability-adjacent image while the company pushes to build energy-intensive data centers across the country. The guest list included creators focused on technology, A.I., business and careers across Instagram and TikTok. Among them were Avni Barman, the founder of the tech community Gen She, who has 513,000 followers on Instagram; Sreya Halder, a TikTok creator with 437,000 followers and co-founder of the shopping alert app The Mall; and Megan Lieu, a Washington, D.C.-based data scientist with 227,000 Instagram followers. Other attendees included Nat Lucy, who has 57,800 TikTok followers and launched the Lucine nightgown brand; Grace McCarrick, a TikTok creator with 145,800 followers who offers career advice for aspiring tech workers; and Justyn Berkovits, an A.I. coach for founders with 154,000 Instagram followers. View this post on Instagram McCarrick posted an Instagram video captioned, "Unwind with me on ChatGPT's first brand trip," showing the upscale accommodations at the resort. The post drew pointed criticism. Meredith Lynch, another creator who later addressed McCarrick's post on her own account, commented: "Can't wait to show this to the millions of folks who are begging to not have data centers in their backyards because of air and noise pollution but your robe looks cozy." Another commenter wrote that the trip was "so tone deaf," arguing that a luxury influencer retreat risked reinforcing public fears that A.I. primarily serves elites while threatening jobs and intellectual property. McCarrick responded in a series of videos, defending her decision to attend and addressing comments accusing her of "selling your morals for less than 100 likes." In a longer LinkedIn post, she said the reaction had left her with "some battle scars," though she did not regret attending. Lucy also faced criticism after posting photos from Wildflower Farms. One commenter wrote, "If you love A.I. so much, go live near a data center then," and another wrote, "Looks like a nice spot for a data center." Another comment accused the company of harming bees. Lieu said she was surprised by the response and intended to use the experience as an opportunity to learn. Other creators who attended appeared either to remain silent or remove posts about the retreat. View this post on Instagram OpenAI is not alone in turning to creators as it seeks to shape public perception of generative A.I. Over the past year, Anthropic hosted influencers at a brand dinner, while Microsoft Copilot hosted creators around the Super Bowl. Neither event appears to have generated the same level of criticism as OpenAI's Hudson Valley retreat. Anthropic's gathering, for instance, was smaller and more private, limiting its visibility and perhaps the scale of the backlash. OpenAI did not respond to Observer's request for comment. However, OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri told other outlets, including TechCrunch, that creators are "an important part of our community and how people get information and learn about our products today." The company has maintained that such events are intended to be educational.

OpenAI's Brand Trip Sparks Backlash For 'Tone Deaf' Nature

While influencers bragged about the luxurious brand trip, followers pointed out the hypocrisy and irony of it all. Influencers who attended OpenAI's first-ever brand trip over the weekend are facing backlash from followers who called the outing completely "tone deaf," saying the influencers were allowing themselves to be used as "pawn[s]" for a company that is harming both the environment and society at large. AI companies -- like OpenAI, which runs ChatGPT -- have been partnering with influencers and celebrities to curry more favorable public perception in light of well-chronicled worries about the technology: Half of American adults said in a June 2025 study that the increased use of AI in daily life is more concerning than exciting. In February, OpenAI poached Instagram's Charles Porch, whom Vanity Fair called a "celebrity whisperer," to serve as the company's vice president of global creative partnerships in an attempt to win support from Hollywood and beyond. Like Anthropic and Microsoft Copilot before them, OpenAI arranged a brand trip to Wildflower Farms in Gardiner, New York, for select influencers: It's a marketing tactic to reach audiences -- the company covers the cost of the trip, and the influencers post about it on their social media accounts. Grace McCarrick, one of the influencers, posted a video on Instagram where, in the background, the bathtub in her cabin was filling up with water -- something commenters found ironic, considering that one of the main concerns about AI is the high power consumption and cooldown requirements of its data centers, which drain or negatively impact water supplies in towns across the country. "The entire thing feels thoughtful," McCarrick said in her video. Many of those who saw the video thought otherwise. "The Effingham residents in my state of Georgia are about to lose a lot of potable water. But glad you go to unwind while we all protest this monstrosity," one wrote. "It's beautiful and you have to be so entitled not to see the irony of your actions. Our children deserve a future," wrote another. Since its inception in 2015, OpenAI has also faced negative reactions for a number of other things in addition to the data center discourse: It has been accused of using other people's work to train its AI and the technology has allegedly encouraged users to hurt or kill themselves. Megan Lieu, another creator, bragged about her cabin at Wildflower Farms and told her 227,000 followers that they should post more on LinkedIn if they want to be invited to similar trips. Commenters on her video, however, focused on something else. "Sick brand trip. Did they promise you access to the water supplies when we lose it," one comment read. Another commenter wrote, "The irony of them hosting this in nature when they are absolutely wrecking nature all over the world. Gross decision to participate." Avni Barman also went on the brand trip, but many of her 514,000 followers didn't seem to mind, as her video -- where she showed off her cabin as well as seminars she attended -- drew mostly positive feedback. McCarrick, Lieu, Barman and OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.

Creators Get Slammed for Taking OpenAI Luxury Trip, Company Welcomes "Healthy Debate

OpenAI is open to "healthy debate." The artificial intelligence giant has responded to online backlash to a luxury brand trip it recently hosted for social media creators and tech-forward influencers, which the company called "Summer Camp." The boondoggle, funded by OpenAI, took place at Wildflower Farms in New York's Hudson Valley, a luxury escape owned and operated as an Auberge Collection property. "Creators are an important part of our community and how people get information and learn about our products today," says an Open AI spokesperson in a statement confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter. "We welcome healthy debate as AI becomes more prevalent, and we value creators who choose to engage with us, attend our events, ask tough questions and learn alongside everyone else. We'll continue to value them, just as we do traditional media and other marketing partners." The farm-to-table experience wasn't cheap. Wildflower Farms sits on 140 acres of forest and working farmland about 90 minutes away from Manhattan near Gardiner, NY. Rather than a typical hotel-type structure, the resort is comprised of freestanding cabins and cottages with options for suites and a range of wellness activities on site. A scan of open reservations for later this month reveals a range in price from $2,253 to $5,413 per night, and OpenAI hosted creators in solo cabins. Not long after arriving -- guests were treated to rosé at the entrance and OpenAI merch awaiting them in their rooms -- creators started posting from inside the retreat to show off their digs and document the experience. The posts have been met with a range of reactions online, from intense criticism to giddy jealousy, depending on that specific creator's following. Though it's mostly been a lot of hate. Meredith Lynch, a prominent TikTok creator who has emerged as a pop culture commentator for criticizing notable names, slammed the trip as "deeply disgusting and embarrassing." Filmmaker Caroline Renard commented, "Influencers gleefully posting about their OpenAI brand trip. There's no water in the rivers but brand trip." Actress DeWanda Wise also weighed in under a Diet Prada post on Instagram by sharing, "Farm to table is rich when the farm needs water to run." The commentary mirrors recent public sentiment about how AI, and OpenAI as one of the leaders in the field, has become unpopular with some young people (especially college students booing mentions of AI during commencement) who increasingly see the ubiquitous, energy-guzzling technology as a threat to their livelihoods and the future of the planet. Brand trips, like this one, are often seen as a way to spread good will, even if it's just via saturating the algorithm with an aspirational experience. Megan Lieu, who bills herself as a "data scientist turned tech creator" and is based in Washington D.C., shared a Reel after checking in only to subsequently shut off comments once it got too heated. THR reached out to Lieu for comment but hasn't heard back as of press time. "All expenses paid brand trip with OpenAI btw," Lieu said in a still-live clip shared with 227,000 followers. "Um, you guys, I literally just checked into my whole ass cabin for a three-day, two-night brand trip with none other than OpenAI." Lieu spent the rest of the Reel promoting the creator economy on LinkedIn. "If you are a creator, specifically a knowledge creator who wants to be flown out on brand trips like this with some of the biggest tech companies in the world, you need to get off of Instagram and stop sleeping on LinkedIn. I'm sorry, but having just Instagram or even just Instagram and TikTok doesn't cut it anymore. You need to be on LinkedIn and you need to be on there now." Sreya Halder, founder of The Mall app which alerts shoppers to sales and restocks from "their favorite brands," posted content from inside the getaway, including a video that showed her private patio and free pajamas. Halder referred to the brand trip as "the dreamiest weekend upstate," but once the backlash started to cloud the experience, Halder deleted any evidence of the trip. One video that is still live on her Instagram is a tutorial on how she built a digital closet using OpenAI's Codex by ChatGPT. Grace McCarrick, a "founder/speaker/creator" with 93,700 followers on Instagram and 145,8000 on TikTok, detailed the trip while wearing a Wildflower Farms robe and running a hot bath with salt crystals. "We didn't get a ton of information going in. I had no idea who was gonna be here," she revealed. "I did not know that I would know people here. It is just kind of a small world, but it has been the most energizing thing. We have learned so much. The entire thing feels thoughtful. The people here feel thoughtful. The activities are thoughtful. The seating is thoughtful." Some of those thoughtful experiences McCarrick described are now known to have been farm-to-table meals and farm tours, wellness activities like yoga, beekeeping activities and painting workshops along with the real meat of the outing -- learning about OpenAI's new tools. McCarrick posted multiple videos about her first brand trip, including one in which she replied directly to a follower who slammed her for "selling your morals for less than 100 likes lol." Another said she should be "stripped of your womanhood" and "join the techbros you so desperately kneel over and spread for." "My morals were not compromised," McCarrick said, adding in another comment that she's not interested in tech bros as someone who is in a relationship (with another woman as she hinted she's a part of the LGBTQ community.) "I am supremely excited about AI, and the opportunities it offers to our species, full stop. Beyond that, anything where there's going to be some vast sweeping change to the way we live, if I have the opportunity to be in the room and hear from people who are at the helm of that change, I'm going to do that. I have a tremendous amount of self trust. I think with more information, I can always do better." Other creators who posted from inside the event include founder and investor Avni Barman and Justyn Berkovits, an AI expert who specializes in training solo founders and entrepreneurs. "Consistency," Barman said in a video of how to snag an invite to such an event. "Showing up every single day." Berkovits, meanwhile, shared a carousel of "here's what I learned" after attending the trip, which he described as an "EPIC" 72 hours. His followers did not roast his participation but instead reacted exclusively with positivity and congratulatory messages. "Love to see this man, congrats," said one, while another added, "They flew me out for the GPT-5.5 launch party. That was fun, too." Coincidentally, two of of those five lessons that Berkovits shared include commentary that can easily be applied to the brand trip and the waves it made: "Uncomfortable action is the path" and "connecting in person goes a long way."

OpenAI Just Took A Bunch Of Influencers On A ChatGPT Brand Trip - And The Internet Has Thoughts

Fast forward three years, and ChatGPT has brought influencers together for an idyllic "Summer Camp" reportedly held in upstate New York. The event was said to be designed to give creators hands-on experience with the recently launched ChatGPT Work tools, with the aim of helping them better understand practical, everyday uses for the platform before sharing those experiences with their audiences. However, people were left scratching their heads. And if you're wondering why, a big part of the conversation comes down to the growing environmental concerns surrounding AI. AI systems rely on vast data centres that require significant amounts of energy, water, and raw materials to build and operate. The electronic waste produced by these systems can contain hazardous substances including mercury and lead. Once operational, these large-scale AI infrastructure data centres require huge amounts of electricity and water-intensive cooling systems to keep them running. "There is still much we don't know about the environmental impact of AI, but some of the data we do have is concerning. We need to make sure the net effect of AI on the planet is positive before we deploy the technology at scale," Golestan (Sally) Radwan, the Chief Digital Officer of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), shared.