Gwyneth Paltrow has postponed a dinner honoring OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman at her Hamptons home, originally planned for this past weekend, after a viral backlash to the invitation, the New York Times reported Friday. [1] No new date has been set, though people familiar with the matter told the Times it would happen within a few weeks. [1]

The timing lands two days into the same story this paper covered Friday in Sacramento: a national backlash against data centers that state legislators are now writing into law. Altman himself supplied the sharpest evidence of that shift, telling Time in an interview published this week that "clearly, people hate data centers — right now, at least. People are pretty negative on AI." [2] The admission came days after OpenAI's head of data centers, Chris Malone, left the company; OpenAI told CNBC the infrastructure team had been "recently reorganized." [2]

Journalist Matthew Belloni first reported the planned dinner in his Puck newsletter last week, drawing criticism online for honoring an executive whose company critics say is "actively replacing" writers and actors. [1] Paltrow, an OpenAI investor since 2023 through Kindred Ventures and a friend of OpenAI creative-partnerships executive Charles Porch, responded on Instagram with mock dinner invitations for fictional AI characters instead — captioned "swordfish burritos, Cheddar foam lattes on request." [1] Seven in ten Americans now oppose new data centers in their own communities, according to a Gallup poll from May. [2]

-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco