Brand trips have long been a rite of passage in the influencer economy. When a company flies a creator to a scenic location and covers the cost of flights, hotel rooms, meals, and gifts, it sends a clear message: this person's audience is valuable. Most brand trips come from fashion labels, beauty lines, or streaming services. This time, the host was one of the most important artificial intelligence companies in the world.

OpenAI held what it called its “first ever brand trip” over the weekend, according to influencers who attended. The retreat, named Summer Club, appeared to take place at Wildflower Farms, a nature-focused resort located outside New York City. Rooms at the property can cost more than $2,000 per night. Attendees received branded merchandise and monogrammed pajamas, and they were encouraged to share their experience with followers.

The event did not go as planned. Comments on the influencers' posts quickly turned hostile. People asked why an AI company was spending money on luxury cabins while data centers consume vast amounts of electricity and water. Others suggested that the influencers had traded their values for a free hotel stay. One TikTok commenter wrote, “People will literally sell their soul and their planet down the river for a nice free hotel room.” Another commented, “Wow! Beautiful greenery! They should put a data center there!”

Key facts from the story

• OpenAI hosted its first brand trip, called Summer Club, at Wildflower Farms outside New York City.
• The invited creators mostly worked in career and business niches and posted lifestyle content about the retreat.
• Public reaction focused on AI's environmental impact, data-center construction, and potential job losses.
• The influencers' videos received modest engagement, but reaction videos gained more than 500,000 combined views.
• OpenAI defended the trip as an educational creator event and said it welcomes healthy debate.

Who was on the trip

The content creators invited to the event were not the typical glamour influencers one might expect from a luxury brand trip. Many appeared to operate in the career and business space, producing content about workplace culture, management, and entrepreneurship. Grace McCarrick, a TikTok creator with roughly 145,000 followers, posted a vlog from her suite as she ran a bath at night. Another influencer, Nat Lucy, who has about 57,000 followers, filmed a deer outside her cabin. Other attendees shared photos of cabins, nature paths, and branded merchandise, while talking vaguely about the scheduled programming.

What the attendees actually learned about ChatGPT remains unclear. There was no visible wave of posts explaining new features, no clips of product demonstrations, and no summaries of sessions with OpenAI researchers. The content that emerged was mostly aspirational lifestyle material: pretty bedding, forest views, and free pajamas. Even by brand-trip standards, the volume of content was low. The trip was domestic rather than an international junket, and one influencer suggested they had not been paid to attend. Several attendees noted that it was the first brand trip they had ever participated in.

The backlash over AI's costs

The criticism did not stay confined to the travellers' comment sections. Reaction videos on TikTok and other platforms drew more attention than the original posts. A pair of reaction clips alone gathered more than half a million combined views. In those videos, creators and commenters mocked the image of an AI company mingling with influencers in a woodland retreat while the industry rushes to build data centers across the United States. Some also raised the point that AI could eventually replace the jobs that the career influencers make content about.

The backlash also exposed a gender dimension. Many of the visible attendees were young women, and some commenters questioned whether OpenAI was deliberately using female influencers to soften its public image. Survey research from Pew has shown that women tend to view AI more negatively than men and are about twice as likely to say that AI will negatively affect them personally. Even as the usage gap between men and women has narrowed, trust remains uneven. Some viewers saw the trip as an attempt to “launder” the reputation of an industry under scrutiny by associating it with relatable, friendly creators. Photos from the event show that men attended as well, but the optics still mattered.

Influencer responses and OpenAI's defense

McCarrick responded to the criticism in multiple videos and in a LinkedIn post. She wrote that she “genuinely had no idea that people were this anti-AI” and that the negative reaction exposed her to “the shocking AI psychosis running rampant online.” She argued that 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.” The remark was meant to dismiss online anger as disconnected from everyday life, but critics saw it as an attempt to delegitimize serious concerns about the effects of AI development.

OpenAI did not distance itself from the event. In a statement, spokesperson Edie Campbell-Urban said creators are “an important part of our community and how people get information and learn about our products today.” She said OpenAI welcomes “healthy debate as AI becomes more prevalent” and values creators who “ask tough questions, and learn alongside everyone else.” She also drew a comparison between creators and traditional media, calling both important marketing partners. The event, she said, was intended to be educational.

A broader shift in AI marketing

The OpenAI trip is part of a larger change in how AI companies talk about themselves. For years, AI marketing leaned heavily on dramatic promises about automation, productivity, and progress. That approach created a problem: the more powerful the technology seemed, the more people worried about losing jobs, privacy, and control. Companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have tried to respond by adding a human touch. They have opened pop-up coffee shops, released stylised merchandise, and run ad campaigns that attempt to turn fear about AI into inspirational content.

Influencer marketing fits naturally into that strategy because audiences often trust the creators they follow more than they trust corporate advertising. A recommendation from a familiar face can feel more authentic than a sponsored ad. OpenAI has used creators in straightforward paid partnerships before, but a brand trip is different. It is about building relationships and borrowing credibility, not just producing one piece of sponsored content. Anthropic has hosted low-key influencer dinners at trendy restaurants with lifestyle creators, and there are signs that OpenAI may hold another trip on the West Coast.

Why this trip was different

Traditional brand trips are usually designed to generate a flood of content. Beauty and fashion brands fly influencers to tropical destinations, stuff gift bags with products, and expect dozens of posts across every platform. The OpenAI event produced surprisingly little content, which made its purpose even more confusing. Was the trip meant to train influencers on ChatGPT? Was it designed to create organic endorsements? Or was it simply a relationship-building exercise? The public could not tell, and the uncertainty became another source of criticism.

The episode also shows how much public opinion about AI has shifted. Companies are now expected to answer for the energy use of data centers, the water consumed by server cooling, and the possibility that AI will replace human workers. Comments on the influencer posts mentioned all three. That anxiety is no longer confined to a small group of technologists. It has become part of mainstream conversations about AI. When an influencer posts a scenic woodland retreat under an AI banner, the contradiction is obvious: the technology behind the event depends on enormous infrastructure that affects the natural world.

There are echoes of past influencer controversies. In 2023, influencers who attended a Shein brand trip faced similar anger because the company was linked to unethical labor practices and environmental harm. An OpenAI trip is different in substance, but the dynamic is familiar. An influencer accepts perks from a powerful company, and the audience reacts to the mismatch between the pretty pictures and the broader consequences of the company's business model. Data centers do not produce textile waste, but they have a growing environmental footprint that is difficult for a rustic retreat to hide.

The final accounting of the OpenAI trip may take a while. Attendees received a luxurious weekend and a storm of criticism. Reaction creators received a topic that generated views. OpenAI received public attention, though not the kind it likely wanted. The trip was a small test for an industry trying to make itself feel more human. But attempts to borrow the soft power of influencers carry a risk: when the audience is skeptical, the cost of a misstep can be far higher than the price of a hotel room. You get what you pay for.

Source: The Verge News