Leadership1 publisher3 min readPublished
OpenAI takes its trust problem to parenting and fitness influencers
Sponsored Instagram posts promoting ChatGPT rose from 61 in June to 141 in August by HypeAuditor's count, and the creators paid to carry the message that AI is an assistant are absorbing the backlash themselves.
The Board Room · Leadership desk
What happened
- The influencer marketing platform HypeAuditor counted 61 sponsored Instagram posts promoting ChatGPT in June, 122 in July and 141 in August as OpenAI expanded its paid creator work.
- Business Insider reviewed dozens of sponsored ChatGPT posts and spoke with six creators and talent managers who had worked with OpenAI on campaigns.
- OpenAI has approached parenting and fitness creators as well as tech-savvy ones, aiming to broaden its user base and grow its advertising business, according to Business Insider.
- A small group of creators who went on an OpenAI brand trip in August were told in their comments sections that their content was "morally bankrupt" and "dystopian."
- The Shade Room, a meme page with more than 28 million Instagram followers, ran a sponsored ChatGPT post at the start of September that was a word search puzzle.
Compiled by The Board RoomSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- contradiction Business Insider describes the programme as broadening OpenAI's user base, while Badger, one of its paid creators, said the audience already has ChatGPT and the job is repeat use. Those are two different targets for the same money.
- constraint Anyone benchmarking a creator budget against OpenAI's is working from post counts; the dollar figures are not public.
- cost The reputational risk of these campaigns sits on the creators' own accounts, and their fee is what OpenAI pays for someone else to take the comments.
OpenAI is making its trust argument through product demonstrations. In a back-to-school campaign, Martha Dove, a mother of five, showed how she uses ChatGPT to help her children with their math homework, and the ad promotes the product's study mode and its teen safety features [19]. "I'm still her mom and her teachers are still her teachers," Dove said in the video [20]. Amanda Acevedo, a talent manager at G&B Digital Management, said the message AI brands across the board are pushing through creators is that AI is an assistant, "not a replacement" [21].
Much of this is routine influencer marketing, running while AI safety dominates the news [3]. The topic mix bears that out. HypeAuditor's analysis of hundreds of ChatGPT posts found coding, productivity, career development, health, travel, education, content creation, shopping and home projects [18]. None of those nine is about safety. The pitches ask creators to vouch for the product's social value: one campaign pitch viewed by Business Insider asked creators to show how ChatGPT can support work that is "good for the world", and one talent manager said the brief was to show that ChatGPT is "cool" [4].
OpenAI's sponsored-post volume more than doubled over the summer, up about 131 percent from June to August [3]. Business Insider did not report what OpenAI pays per post [22]. The increase came in one jump: June to July was a doubling, and July to August added 19 posts, about 16 percent [1]. HypeAuditor logged 324 sponsored posts across the three months [2].
Creators are "how people get information and learn about our products," an OpenAI spokesperson said [11]. Acevedo said the company is keen on working with creators who can tell a vivid story about how they are strategically using AI to "build an actual business" [12]. Natasha Badger, who makes content about marketing and tech, worked with OpenAI in July on its ChatGPT Work tools and walked through building a presentation in the sponsored post [13]. "They want it to be catered to a specific use case that resonates with our lives and day-to-day," Badger said [15].
"In the five inboxes that I manage alone, every single day, I would say at least 15 emails are from an AI company or some AI feature," Acevedo said [9]. OpenAI, Anthropic and Higgsfield AI are all pitching influencers, according to Business Insider [8]. One talent manager said OpenAI representatives had expressed interest in working with fitness creators, since health and running questions are common ChatGPT use cases [17]. Badger said it was a "big war" between AI companies over "who can get the most market share and work with the most influencers" [10].
What to watch
- Whether September and October post counts hold near 141 or fall back toward June's level.
- Whether any AI company discloses creator spend, or talent managers report rates rising as more firms pitch.
- Whether creators start turning down AI campaigns after audience backlash; that would raise what OpenAI pays for the same reach.