Influencers draw backlash for attending OpenAI’s first luxury trip

🚨 Flash Sale 🚨 Get $100 off your Disrupt 2026 ticket Get $400 off your Disrupt 2026 ticket: REGISTER NOW. Close TechCrunch Desktop Logo TechCrunch Mobile Logo LatestStartupsVentureAppleSecurityAIAppsDisrupt 2026 EventsPodcastsNewsletters SearchSubmit Site Search Toggle Mega Menu Toggle Topics Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture More from TechCrunch Staff Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us Image Credits:Marco VDM / Social Influencers draw backlash for attending OpenAI’s first luxury trip Dominic-Madori Davis 12:09 PM PDT · August 3, 2026 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. View this post on Instagram 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’ environmental 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. View this post on Instagram When reached for comment, OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said that OpenAI works with a range of creators as part of a broader marketing effort to help people understand more practical ways to use ChatGPT.

One purpose of the trip was to teach creators how to use the newly released ChatGPT Work, which can help users with tasks like drafting documents and presentations. Pusateri said the event was education-led and sought to give creators hands-on experience with the AI tools so that they could then show their followers how to use them. We’ll continue to value them, just as we do traditional media and other marketing partners.” 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. var playerInstance_jwplayer_6a755f29056d0 = jwplayer( "jwplayer_6a755f29056d0" ); playerInstance_jwplayer_6a755f29056d0.setup(); 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.