{"slug": "influencers-draw-backlash-for-attending-openais-first-luxury-trip", "title": "Influencers draw backlash for attending OpenAI’s first luxury trip", "summary": "OpenAI's first influencer brand trip, 'Summer Club,' held at a luxury retreat in upstate New York, sparked online backlash as commenters accused attendees of ignoring AI's environmental impact and criticized the timing amid OpenAI's planned $500 billion data center deal in Ohio. The backlash highlights growing public skepticism toward AI, with one influencer admitting she didn't anticipate the controversy, and follows OpenAI's hiring of Charles Porch as VP of global creative partnerships to engage with creators.", "body_md": "OpenAI’s first-ever influencer brand trip is sparking online backlash as tensions over the use of AI continue.\n\nOver 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.\n\nThe 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](https://www.tiktok.com/@graceforpersonalityhires/video/7669031978213117198) had comments from people insinuating she sold her soul “for a nice hotel room,” or [asking if she could do a ](https://www.instagram.com/grace_mccarrick/?hl=en)video reconciling her trip with AI data centers’ environment impact.\n\nAnother influencer [who posted about the trip was asked](https://www.tiktok.com/@avnibarman_/video/7669614927169998094) 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.\n\nIt’s not surprising that OpenAI is enlisting influencers by offering luxury brand trips. In February, Vanity Fair [reported that the company hired](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/openai-hires-charles-porch-instagram?srsltid=AfmBOoonVkzQYih9WYkFAZ88fYBfpC5IYRh6sEARBFEjPhOsEUwEGOvn) “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.\n\nIt’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.](https://sarahandkate.substack.com/p/ais-influencer-problem)\n\nNone 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](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7489983409877049344/) 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.\n\nTechCrunch spoke to a person who left a negative comment on a video posted by an influencer attending the OpenAI Summer Camp.\n\nThe 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.”\n\nThere is also more to the timing of the trip that struck people. OpenAI is set to strike [a $500 billion](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/technology/openai-data-center-nvidia.html) 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.\n\nOther commenters also noted OpenAI’s $200 million [contract with the Department of Defense](https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/01/openai-shares-more-details-about-its-agreement-with-the-pentagon/) as a reason the brand trip evoked ire.\n\nTechCrunch has reached out to influencers for comment. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/influencers-draw-backlash-for-attending-openais-first-luxury-trip", "canonical_source": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/03/influencers-draw-backlash-for-attending-openais-first-luxury-trip/", "published_at": "2026-08-03 19:09:56+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-03 19:10:52.654851+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-ethics", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "Charles Porch", "Anthropic", "Microsoft Copilot", "TechCrunch", "Vanity Fair"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/influencers-draw-backlash-for-attending-openais-first-luxury-trip", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/influencers-draw-backlash-for-attending-openais-first-luxury-trip.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/influencers-draw-backlash-for-attending-openais-first-luxury-trip.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/influencers-draw-backlash-for-attending-openais-first-luxury-trip.jsonld"}}