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OpenAI's lavish 'Summer Club' trip sparks online backlash

OpenAI flew influencers to a luxury resort in New York to promote ChatGPT, but instead drew criticism over environmental responsibility and the impact on creative workers

Over a weekend in early August 2026, OpenAI hosted a group of influencers at a luxury resort in upstate New York under a project called "Summer Club." Participating creators were treated to exclusive activities, from farm-to-table dinners and wellness experiences like beekeeping to workshops on how to get the most out of OpenAI's products.

OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri explained that the company works with a wide range of creators to help people better understand how to use ChatGPT in practice, and that a key goal of the trip was to teach creators how to use ChatGPT Work, a newly launched feature that assists with drafting documents and creating presentations.

However, what was meant to be a picture-perfect campaign backfired when videos and posts from the trip were flooded with hostile comments. One influencer was accused of "selling their soul for a nice hotel room," while others demanded videos connecting the lavish trip to the environmental impact of AI data centers. Another was mockingly asked whether they would film a get-ready-with-me video during a data center tour. Notably, when TechCrunch reached out to a third influencer, they found she had already deleted her video about the trip, even though she kept other videos that didn't clearly identify themselves as part of it.

Critics argue that OpenAI pouring resources into a luxury influencer trip — at a time when artists, writers, and many creative professionals are worried AI will take their livelihoods — shows the company doesn't understand the real-world impact of its own products. The trip has become a lesson that influencer campaigns, in an era of heated public debate over AI, can easily produce the opposite of the intended effect.