OpenAI just learned that flying influencers to a $2,000-a-night resort isn’t the same as sending them a PR box. The company’s “Summer Club” trip, a nature retreat outside New York City, was meant to be an educational brand moment. Instead, it became a lightning rod for public fury over AI’s environmental toll and labor impact.
The content itself was unremarkable. TikTokers like Grace McCarrick and Nat Lucy posted aesthetic cabin footage, branded pajamas, and deer sightings. The videos barely cracked 15,000 views. But reaction videos exploded, racking up over half a million combined views. Commenters didn’t critique the production value — they attacked the premise. “People will literally sell their soul and their planet down the river for a nice free hotel room,” one wrote. Another quipped that the lush greenery was a perfect spot for a data center.
What makes this spiral fascinating isn’t just the backlash, but the confusion it exposed. McCarrick later wrote on LinkedIn that she “genuinely had no idea that people were this anti-AI,” describing the anger as “shocking AI psychosis.” That disconnect — between an influencer who talks about workplace soft skills to corporate clients like Spotify and Amazon, and an audience that sees her as laundering a destructive industry’s reputation — is the real story. Pew data shows that while the AI usage gap between men and women has narrowed, women are twice as likely to say AI will negatively impact them personally. Some critics openly speculated that OpenAI deliberately courted female influencers to soften its image with that exact demographic.
OpenAI spokesperson Edie Campbell-Urban framed the trip as part of normal creator marketing, saying the company values creators who “ask tough questions.” But the trip’s design — a domestic weekend with light programming — suggests a team still figuring out how to sell a product that many people are actively afraid of. The luxury wasn’t the problem. The problem was treating ChatGPT like a DTC sneaker brand when its stakes are existential, and the audience isn’t shopping — they’re watching.
