OpenAI has an image problem, and it just spent a weekend making it worse. The company flew a group of influencers to a luxury resort to soften how the public sees AI. The internet took one look and called it greenwashing.
The event, branded “Summer Camp,” ran at Wildflower Farms, a resort in New York’s Hudson Valley where rooms can top $2,000 a night, Business Insider reported. Creators posted farm-to-table dinners under bistro lights, a beekeeping session, and classes on OpenAI’s tools. They went home with branded canvas bags and jars of honey.
The videos were soft-focus and lighthearted. The comments were not. Across TikTok, Reddit, X and Instagram, people called the trip “dystopian” and accused OpenAI of greenwashing. One commenter told TechCrunch the issue was timing: “The world is on fire. It’s not a great time to brag about your $5,000-a-night suite.”
The irony writes itself
The charge is not abstract. OpenAI is building data centres across the US at speed, and those sites are hungry for energy and water. The company is reported to be close to a $500bn deal for a data centre in Ohio. Hosting a nature retreat, bees included, in the middle of that was never going to read as innocent.
