OpenAI is paying influencers to paint it as helpful, not dangerous. The company has doubled its sponsored Instagram posts promoting ChatGPT and is now enlisting a wide range of creators — parenting bloggers, fitness trainers, and tech-savvy entrepreneurs — to show how the AI tool supports daily life. The goal, as one campaign pitch put it, is to make ChatGPT look “good for the world.”
The Sponsored Post Surge
Data from influencer marketing platform HypeAuditor shows OpenAI more than doubled its sponsored Instagram posts promoting ChatGPT, going from 61 in June to 122 in July before reaching 141 in August. Business Insider looked at dozens of those posts and talked with six managers and creators who had worked with the company.
The message is plain: ChatGPT can assist with parenting, managing a business, creating content, organizing workouts, and being a good person.
Founders Turn Influencers
OpenAI’s best targets are founders who have already built businesses. Talent manager Amanda Acevedo said the company wants creators who can tell a vivid story about how they are using AI to “build an actual business.” Creator Natasha Badger, who makes content about marketing and tech, promoted ChatGPT’s Work tools in July, walking viewers through how she used the AI to build a presentation.
“Most people following any of us have ChatGPT already,” Badger said. “They don’t need to convert users. It’s more getting people to continue going to ChatGPT as your go-to LLM.”
A Word Search Puzzle
The approach has moved past B2B marketing. Early in September, The Shade Room — an account built around internet humor that has amassed more than 28 million Instagram followers — posted a sponsored post promoting ChatGPT. Rather than showing how the AI could make work easier, it presented a word search puzzle created by the software itself.
HypeAuditor’s examination of hundreds of Instagram posts revealed that the central themes covered coding, productivity, career development, health, travel, education, content creation, shopping, and home projects.
The Back-to-School Pitch
A mother of five named Martha Dove posted about using ChatGPT to assist her children with their math homework. The sponsored post pushed products like ChatGPT’s “study mode” along with teen safety measures. Dove made sure to stress that the AI operates as a helper, not a substitute.
“I’m still her mom and her teachers are still her teachers — this isn’t replacing any of that,” she said in her video.
The Talent Team
A group of tech professionals with deep experience in creator partnerships is being put together by OpenAI. The company has brought on board several people from platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Snapchat, based on a review of OpenAI staffers’ LinkedIn profiles. Most visibly, in February, OpenAI poached Charles Porch, Instagram’s longtime head of partnerships.
The influencer marketing agency Viral Nation has been brought on board by the AI company to manage parts of its creator campaigns. The agency has previously worked with major tech companies including Meta, Google, and Uber.
Risk for Creators
Working with OpenAI can be risky. Some influencers who post sponsored content for AI companies are getting dragged by their audiences. A small group of creators who attended an OpenAI brand trip in August were told their content was “morally bankrupt” and “dystopian” in their comments sections.
Acevedo described the tension between AI and the creator economy. She sees commissioning sponsored posts as a way to “help bridge that gap — that we’re not against each other.”
What We Make of It
OpenAI has hired a former Instagram partnerships chief and enlisted a meme page to run a word-search puzzle while paying influencers to promote ChatGPT as a productivity tool. The company tells creators the AI is merely an assistant, not a replacement.
The firm is wagering that tales told by ordinary folks — a mother aiding her children with their schoolwork, a trainer arranging exercise sessions — will persuade viewers that AI serves a purpose rather than poses a danger. The outcome hinges on whether those accounts withstand examination.
Here is what matters in this campaign:
- OpenAI is doubling down on influencer marketing as AI safety concerns rise.
- The company is casting a wide net, from parenting bloggers to tech-savvy creators.
- Sponsored posts are shifting from enterprise demos to lifestyle uses like parenting and fitness.
- OpenAI is building a dedicated influencer marketing team, including Viral Nation and Charles Porch.
- The message is consistent: AI is an assistant, not a replacement.
OpenAI is pushing a full-court press to mold public opinion around its technology. Instead of seeking influencers to soothe worries about a rogue AI wiping out humanity, the company wants them to promote the benefits of ChatGPT. The request is for proof that the software is both appealing and beneficial to society.
Source material: “OpenAI is enlisting an influencer army to make it look 'good for the world',” businessinsider.com.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.