OpenAI's brand trip backlash reveals a tension the creator economy still hasn't resolved

What happens when people say they're wary of AI, but keep rewarding it anyway?

OpenAI's first influencer brand trip has unexpectedly become the latest flashpoint in the creator economy's debate over where AI belongs.

The company last weekend hosted "Summer Club", a two-day influencer retreat that included demonstrations of OpenAI's newly launched productivity tool, ChatGPT Work, alongside fun fixtures like farm-to-table dinners and painting workshops.

OpenAI described the trip as "education-led". Spokesperson Drew Pusateri told TechCrunch the company works with creators "as part of a broader marketing effort to help people understand more practical ways to use ChatGPT", adding that it welcomed "healthy debate as AI becomes more prevalent".

The response, however, was anything but educational.

Commenters criticised creators for attending what they viewed as a luxury marketing exercise for one of the world's biggest AI companies, questioning everything from AI's environmental impact to OpenAI's reported $500 billion Ohio data centre project and its $200 million Pentagon contract.

Creator Grace McCarrick, who attended the retreat, later wrote on LinkedIn that she thought people "would be interested in the behind the scenes tips and tricks" of using OpenAI's technology, adding: "I didn't for one second consider it could be controversial."

Brand trips are hardly strangers to criticism. They're often dismissed as overly lavish or disconnected from everyday consumers. What's unusual is for the backlash to centre on the company behind it, rather than the trip itself.

In doing so, OpenAI's Summer Club exposed a wider question the creator economy has been grappling with for months.

AI is becoming increasingly embedded in how creators work and audiences consume content, yet there remains little agreement over where its use becomes unacceptable.

Platforms are already drawing the line

Platforms, meanwhile, are already trying to answer that question.

Over the past few weeks, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Substack and TikTok have all introduced measures designed to curb low-quality AI content while continuing to invest heavily in AI tools themselves.

Snapchat recently said it will stop recommending wholly AI-generated videos on Spotlight while continuing to recommend content created using its own AI tools, provided it is labelled. LinkedIn has begun testing a feature allowing users to report posts that "seem like AI slop". Substack has introduced transparency labels showing whether posts, Notes and comments were written by a person or with AI assistance, while TikTok has expanded efforts to identify synthetic content and reduce what it calls AI spam.

Still, none of the platforms are retreating from AI outright.

As social media consultant Matt Navarra told The Daily Influence: "The direction of travel is not anti-AI. It's anti-AI without accountability, originality or some sort of human value add."

Transparency appears to be the principle underpinning each approach. Rather than rejecting AI outright, platforms are increasingly requiring creators to disclose their use of it while limiting synthetic content that cannot easily be identified.

Values versus behaviour

Still, if platforms are beginning to settle on where AI belongs, creators and audiences appear far less certain.

Adobe's 2026 Creators' Toolkit Report, which canvassed more than 16,000 creators, found 87% say AI has accelerated the growth of their business or audience, while 75% describe it as integrated or essential to how they work. At the same time, 85% say the final creative decision should remain human.

The findings suggest creators are trying to strike a balance. AI is becoming an increasingly important part of the creative process, but creators still want humans to remain at its centre.

Audience behaviour tells a similar story. Earlier this year, Fruit Love Island – an AI-generated parody of Love Island – amassed more than three million TikTok followers within days, with individual episodes attracting tens of millions of views before the account was eventually removed following mass reporting.

Arguably, the examples point to a more nuanced picture than the public debate often suggests. AI appears to be becoming part of the creator economy faster than the conversation around it is evolving.

The result is an industry that appears increasingly comfortable using AI, but perhaps not yet as comfortable admitting it.