Jake Bass, who claims to be a CEO and founder, has drawn massive backlash online after sharing a first-class Emirates flight with his father and turning it into a self-congratulatory, motivational post with the help of AI.
“Just flew my dad with me to Dubai. First class. Emirates. $50,000 flight. (A world away from the $1,200 I used to pay in economy.) 470 passengers. Only 2 in First Class—us,” Bass wrote on X.
“I sat there thinking—what made our journey so different from the 468 behind us? Then I saw the pilot adjust our course by just 1° to avoid turbulence.”
He continued, “Barely noticeable… But hours later, we were far off the original path. That’s when it clicked: Just a slight change in direction … changes everything.”
The 20-something Australian shared photos of the luxurious experience, including his father relaxing in a private pod, enjoying fine dining and sipping drinks. The tone of the post, coupled with its moral lesson, quickly stirred anger.
Bass later told the New York Post that he deliberately used ChatGPT to craft his post for maximum engagement. “I say what I believe, and I get ChatGPT to work in a controversial way,” he said. “It’s the algorithm that makes me sound like a douche.”
Despite the backlash, he stood by the message. “To be completely honest, I don’t think what I said was wrong at all. I shared a perspective — one that challenges people to reflect on their own choices, and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable,” he said. “That’s really what this is about: most people don’t want to be reminded that they’ve settled.”
The post quickly went viral, with hundreds flooding the comments to call him out. “Funny, because without my glasses, I read your name as Jack A–. I’ll leave it at that,” one person commented. Another wrote, “Nobody buying your course lil bro.”
“You sound insufferable,” read another comment. One user hit back at the pricing itself: “The difference between you and the 468 behind you is that they didn’t waste $50,000 on something as temporary as a seat on a plane.” Some even claimed the photos and flight cost were exaggerated or misleading.
