Oh, how I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at OpenAI’s HQ when execs decided the theme for the company’s first-ever influencer brand trip.

Between conversations about brand aesthetics, bottomless budgets and KPIs, someone in the marketing department had the ultimate eureka moment: what about… nature?

I wasn’t there, but I imagine it went something like this…

“Guys, I’ve got it! To distract everyone from the environmental impact of AI, why don’t we bring the influencers to an idyllic farm in upstate New York and host a range of eco-friendly activities?”

“We can do beekeeping because, like, save the bees is a thing, right? We can host a farm-to-table dinner because that’s really trendy now! Oh, and we can gift them binoculars and outdoor accessories to let them really soak up the nature!”

BOOM! Job done. Everyone go home.

This conversation didn’t happen, but the influencer getaway actually did. Over the weekend, the tech giant behind ChatGPT transported a gaggle of productivity content creators (the type that urge you rise at 4 a.m. to work on a side hustle) to the high-end countryside resort Wildflower Farms by Auberge Collection, in upstate New York – where cabins typically cost upwards of $1,500 per night.

There, they indulged in an itinerary of eco-friendly activities including farm-to-table dinners, beekeeping and roasting s’mores by the campfire, alongside networking sessions and workshops on programming using ChatGPT. According to an article by MIT last year, the global electricity consumption of data centers needed to support AI in 2026 is comparable with the entire nation of Japan, making this an itinerary so tone-deaf that even an AI chatbot couldn’t make it up.

In hindsight, this was maybe a touch on-the-nose. It’s no secret that AI companies rely on vast data centers packed with power-hungry servers that generate enormous amounts of heat, with many facilities requiring huge volumes of water to keep them cool.

The irony of the trip was not lost on the internet, either. “The trip should’ve been to a data centre,” said one person online. “Better yet, a home by a data centre, with dirty water and noise pollution.” Another person likened the brazenness of the trip to “an oil and gas company taking people to a coral reef scuba diving trip.”

Influencers shared aesthetically pleasing photo dumps of their gifted goodie bags, which included personalised Peruvian cotton pyjamas monogrammed with their initials and a tote bag embroidered with the geometric ChatGPT logo. They also attended a decadent candlelit dinner table set in the woods, with a large, decorative, not-at-all sinister ChatGPT orb as the backdrop (in case anyone forgot who was bankrolling their luxury getaway).

Another influencer shared a video of the “complementary outdoor supplies” laid on a table in her hotel room that included a pair of secateurs (presumably for pruning plants, not cutting them down), a lamp, a torch and binoculars to really get in touch with nature.

According to the United Nations, every unit of electricity used by data centres carries a “water footprint” for cooling and energy production, and a “land footprint” associated with power generation and supply chains. Its research shows that data centres could consume 945 terawatt-hours of electricity annually by 2030 – nearly triple the combined annual electricity use of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria, countries collectively home to more than 650 million people.

OpenAI is the most prominent AI company in the world right now, having literally popularized the AI boom through the everyday use of ChatGPT for everything from food recipes to therapy sessions and streamlining your workflow.

Looking at it from another perspective, maybe it’s nice that OpenAI wanted the influencers to enjoy nature while we’ve still got it.

The United States hosts more than 4,000 data centers, which is more than any other country. The Department of Energy expects that all U.S. data centers will consume as much as 12 percent of all U.S. electricity by 2028 (that figure was 4.4 percent in the U.S. just three years ago in 2023).

Last year, Lucy Atkinson, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies the public perception of the environmental impact of AI, told The Independent that ChatGPT uses 10 times more energy than a Google search and that 15 queries consume the same energy as watching an hour of normal video content.

While OpenAI’s influencer class of 2026 enjoys their morally ambiguous beekeeping, the U.S. and other parts of the world are experiencing one of the worst wildfire seasons in years. They are starting earlier each year, lasting for longer and becoming harder to contain. Wildfires are also smoldering through the winter as “zombie fires,” according to the Canadian Climate Institute, which has noted how climate change worsens wildfire threats and may multiply the likelihood of extreme wildfires several times over.

The environmental impact of data centers is being felt more immediately in local communities, too. In Dowagiac, Michigan, residents recently filed a lawsuit against the operators of a nearby data center, alleging that a relentless high-pitched whine has blighted the area for the past two years. Noise is just one concern. Depending on how they're built and powered, data centers can also affect local air and water resources, place pressure on electricity grids and, in some cases, contribute to higher energy costs for nearby residents.

The picture isn’t entirely black and white, of course. These data centers can generate millions in local tax revenue, create jobs and spur investment in surrounding communities, even if critics argue those benefits don’t always outweigh the costs.

It is nevertheless hard to shake the feeling that little is being done to slow the industry’s growing appetite for energy and water. Which is why watching a flock of influencers frolic around a luxury farm to promote the world’s most popular chatbot feels a little... off, to say the least.

OpenAI told The Independent in a statement that “Creators are an important part of our community” and that it welcomes “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.” It added: “We’ll continue to value them, just as we do traditional media and other marketing partners.”

In any case, I hope the content creators got a good night’s sleep in their personalized ChatGPT jammies, with the faint hum of a data center whirring in the distance.