OpenAI’s move into brand-trip marketing has turned into a case study in how difficult it is to sell AI through lifestyle content. A weekend retreat called “Summer Club” brought creators into a scenic setting, but the online conversation quickly shifted away from ChatGPT and toward broader anxiety about the AI industry.
The result was not the usual flood of aspirational posts that brands often want from influencer travel. Instead, a relatively small set of videos drew a much larger wave of reaction content, criticism, and questions about what OpenAI hoped to accomplish.
A familiar influencer playbook meets AI skepticism
Brand trips are a standard part of influencer marketing. Companies invite creators to an all-expenses-paid getaway, often pairing a polished setting with branded products, scheduled activities, and social posts designed to make the experience feel desirable.
That approach is common for fast fashion companies and beauty brands. In this case, the sponsor was a major AI company, which made the format feel different. OpenAI’s “first ever brand trip” appears to have taken place outside of New York City at a nature-filled retreat that looked to be Wildflower Farms.
The trip was presented as “Summer Club.” Creators shared cabins, branded merch, monogrammed pajamas, and brief glimpses of the retreat setting. Many appeared to come from career and business niches, including creators who post about workplace culture or being CEOs.
Grace McCarrick, who has 145,000 followers on TikTok, posted from her suite while running a bath at night. Nat Lucy, who has 57,000 followers, shared a moment spotting a deer outside her cabin. These posts did not show much about what the creators learned from OpenAI or how ChatGPT was being explained.
The backlash focused on bigger AI worries
The criticism was not mainly about the trip being lavish, though the setting was part of the reaction. Rooms at the retreat cost upwards of $2,000 a night, according to the source article, but the event still appeared simpler than the most extravagant brand trips.
Much of the response pointed to the broader debate around AI. Commenters brought up the environmental effects of the AI boom, the buildout of data centers across the US, and concerns about job replacement or job loss as companies bring AI into the workplace.
One commenter on McCarrick’s video wrote, “People will literally sell their soul and their planet down the river for a nice free hotel room,” while a comment on Lucy’s post said, “Wow! Beautiful greenery! They should put a data center there!” The criticism used the retreat’s natural setting as a contrast with fears about AI infrastructure.
The original creator videos did not appear to perform like major influencer campaigns. McCarrick’s video had just under 300 likes, and Lucy’s video had fewer than 15,000 views. But reaction videos helped turn the trip into a wider controversy, with a pair of clips alone reaching over half a million combined views.
Gender became part of the conversation
Some viewers also questioned the group of creators who appeared in posts from the event. Many seemed to be young women, leading some audiences to ask whether OpenAI was trying to reach a specific demographic through media they were more connected to. Based on photos and videos posted to social media, men were on the trip too.
The discussion connected to broader attitudes about AI. According to Pew, even as the AI usage gap between men and women has all but disappeared, women tend to view AI more negatively and are twice as likely to say AI will negatively impact them personally.
That context sharpened the criticism. Some audiences wondered whether female influencers were being used to soften the image of an industry facing scrutiny. The concern was not simply that creators attended a sponsored trip, but that the campaign might be trying to make AI feel friendly without directly addressing the worries people have about it.
Creators and OpenAI responded to the reaction
McCarrick later posted multiple videos responding to people who accused her of giving up her morals for a luxury experience. On LinkedIn, she wrote that she “genuinely had no idea that people were this anti-AI,” and described the response as “the shocking AI psychosis running rampant online.”
She also wrote 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 phrase “AI psychosis” drew attention because she used it to mean anger about AI, rather than the more common definition connected to paranoia or delusions of grandeur from using AI.
None of the influencers contacted by The Verge responded to requests for comment. OpenAI said creator marketing is one way it reaches people and framed the event as educational.
“Creators are an important part of our community and how people get information and learn about our products today,” OpenAI spokesperson Edie Campbell-Urban said in an email. “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. We’ll continue to value them, just as we do traditional media and other marketing partners.”
The unclear message may be the real issue
The strangest part of the backlash is that there was not much visible content explaining the product. If a brand trip is meant to generate attention, it usually produces a steady stream of posts about meals, activities, expert sessions, gifts, and takeaways.
Here, the public saw more lifestyle material than clear information about ChatGPT. There were cabins, free items, and attractive scenery, but little obvious evidence of what creators were learning. Multiple influencers said it was their first brand trip, and one indicated they were not paid to attend.
That left the campaign’s purpose open to interpretation. Was it product education, reputation work, community building, or a test of influencer marketing for AI? Because the visible output was vague, critics filled the gap with their own assumptions about OpenAI’s motives.
AI companies have already used influencer marketing in more direct ways, including paying creators to talk about product offerings. They have also experimented with formats closer to traditional consumer marketing. Anthropic has hosted lower-key influencer dinners at trendy locations with lifestyle influencers, and there are rumblings of a second OpenAI trip on the West Coast.
The larger lesson is that AI marketing is operating in a charged environment. OpenAI and Anthropic have tried to add a more human touch through in-person pop-up coffee shops, stylized merch drops, and ad campaigns that turn public worries about AI into more positive messaging.
But a brand trip can only do so much when people are already concerned about data centers, jobs, and trust. For AI companies, the audience may not be asking for more lifestyle content. It may be asking for clearer answers.