A Weekend of Beekeeping and Backlash
OpenAI’s first-ever influencer brand trip was supposed to be a chill, aesthetic getaway. Instead, it’s become a PR headache.
Over the weekend, the company flew a small group of creators to a luxury retreat in upstate New York for what it called “Summer Club.” The itinerary read like a wellness influencer’s dream: farm-to-table dinners, beekeeping sessions, and workshops on making the most of OpenAI’s tools. One creator posted about building a website. Another snapped a photo of a brochure advertising a “painting workshop.”
The videos were soft-lit and serene. The comment sections were anything but.
One influencer who documented the trip on TikTok and Instagram faced a barrage of criticism. Commenters accused her of selling her soul “for a nice hotel room.” Others asked whether she could film a video reconciling the retreat with the environmental toll of AI data centers.
Another creator was jokingly asked if she’d do a get-ready-with-me video from inside a data center. A third influencer, when reached by TechCrunch, appears to have deleted the video she made about the trip — though she kept other posts that don’t explicitly mention it was an OpenAI junket.
Why the OpenAI Influencer Trip Struck a Nerve
This isn’t just about a few snarky comments. The backlash taps into something bigger: a growing public unease with AI’s real-world costs.
OpenAI is currently negotiating a $500 billion data center deal in Ohio — a project that has reignited debates about energy use, water consumption, and the environmental footprint of AI infrastructure. Holding a luxury retreat nestled in nature, complete with beekeeping, felt tone-deaf to many.
Then there’s the $200 million contract with the Department of Defense. Several commenters pointed out the irony of cozying up to influencers while OpenAI deepens its military ties.
TechCrunch spoke with one commenter who left a negative note on an influencer’s video. She said the event gave people “ammunition to have negative opinions.” Her words were blunt: “The world is on fire. It’s not a great time to brag about your $5,000-a-night suite.”
OpenAI’s Defense: Education, Not Indulgence
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri pushed back on the criticism. He told TechCrunch the trip was “education-led” and designed to give creators hands-on experience with the newly released ChatGPT Work — a tool that helps with drafting documents and presentations.
“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.”
That framing hasn’t fully landed. Critics note that a luxury retreat with beekeeping and painting workshops is a strange way to teach people about productivity software. The optics, they argue, undermine the educational message.
The Celebrity Whisperer and the Creator Economy Playbook
OpenAI’s pivot to influencers isn’t random. In February, Vanity Fair reported that the company hired Charles Porch — a former Instagram VP with a reputation as a “celebrity whisperer” — as its first VP of global creative partnerships.
Porch said his mission was to talk to creative communities “to figure out how we build the best products to serve them.” He planned a “listening tour” to understand how people relate to AI tools.
The Summer Club trip looks like the first big test of that strategy. It’s a classic Silicon Valley move: wine and dine creators, get organic content, own the narrative. But the execution may have backfired.
Not the Only AI Lab Playing This Game
OpenAI isn’t alone in courting influencers. Anthropic reportedly hosted a brand dinner for Claude. In February, Microsoft Copilot took creators to the Super Bowl, as the tech newsletter Sarah and Kate reported.
But none of those trips generated the same level of online fury. Why?
Partly it’s timing. AI anxiety is at a peak — from job displacement fears to data center energy demands. Partly it’s optics. A luxury retreat screams “wealth and privilege” at a moment when many people are struggling. And partly it’s the perceived hypocrisy: OpenAI wants to be seen as a responsible AI leader while throwing money at influencers and signing defense contracts.
One influencer who attended the trip wrote on LinkedIn that she assumed people “would be interested in the behind-the-scenes tips and tricks” of using OpenAI technology. She admitted she never considered it would be controversial.
“I didn’t for one second consider it would be controversial,” she wrote.
What This Means for Creator-AI Partnerships
The backlash is a warning shot for any company thinking about influencer marketing in the AI space. Creators are walking a tightrope: they want access to cool new tools, but they’re also accountable to audiences who are increasingly skeptical of Big Tech’s motives.
Some influencers have already learned that lesson the hard way. Deleting videos and dodging questions isn’t a sustainable strategy. The smart ones will engage with the criticism directly — and maybe ask tougher questions themselves.
OpenAI, for its part, seems committed to the creator route. The company says it values “healthy debate” and creators who “ask tough questions.” Whether that’s genuine or damage control remains to be seen.
One thing is clear: the era of the free AI influencer trip is here, and it’s going to be messy. The question is whether companies like OpenAI can learn to do it without looking like they’re out of touch.
This article was updated to include comments from OpenAI.
