‘Super smug schmuck’: CEO sparks social media storm over airport image

A CEO has sparked outrage online after sharing an image that left others infuriated before he jumped on a first-class flight.

A man is being slammed online after bragging about his first-class travels — in a rage-inducing social media post compiled with the help of the popular AI tool.

Jake Bass, who lists himself as a CEO and founder on social media, went viral after showing off his recent luxurious long-haul flight, The New York Post reports.

“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,” he 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 degree to avoid turbulence.”

“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 CEO was slammed for his post. Photo: Instagram

The image the kicked off the furore. Photo: Instagram

The odd, on-the-fly motivational speech was written with the help of ChatGPT and shared by the 20-something-year-old Australian along with photos of Bass and his father lounging in their deluxe pods, enjoying the food and drinks and showing off their top-notch accessories.

“I say what I believe, and I get ChatGPT to work in a controversial way,” Bass told The Post, explaining that he uses the technology “as a tool to help me configure my words to be viral for the algorithm.”

“It’s the algorithm that makes me sound like a douche.”

But he clarified he strongly agrees with the sentiment.

“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,” Bass said. “That’s really what this is about: most people don’t want to be reminded that they’ve settled.”

The post took off quickly as people flooded his comments with enraged responses accusing him of being “greedy” and “selfish.”

“Funny, because without my glasses, I read your name as Jack A**. I’ll leave it at that,” someone said.

“Nobody buying your course lil bro,” another said.

“You sound insufferable,” a person commented.

“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,” another wrote.

His social media accounts have plenty of photos like this. Photo: Instagram

Bass has showed off for his followers. Photo: Instagram

Others also accused him of sharing inaccurate prices and misleading photos of his first-class experience.

He then responded to his original post, noting that a “lot of people are upset” and offered to fly one person anywhere in the world if they followed him on X, where he currently has about 2,000 followers, and Instagram, where he has around 8,000 followers.

Bass announced the winner on X. She did not reply to The Post’s request to comment.

The original tweet went viral and was eventually picked up by several news outlets, which Bass considered proof that he was “doing something right,” according to his Instagram Story.

However, he rejected being deemed “entitled,” claiming that people who know him are aware that he locked himself away for five years, working hard and staying off social media.

“This life was earned,” Bass insisted on Instagram.

He then revealed to his audience that he had used ChatGPT to write the tweet — to intentionally “trigger emotion, create division, and spark mass engagement.”

“Our plan worked perfectly,” Bass showed the bot, replying in a subsequent update to the original post.

The alleged entrepreneur appears to have attempted the copy the same formula a few days ago, posting a similar tweet claiming to have another inspiring epiphany — while sitting up in the Emirates First Class lounge looking down at everyone flying economy.

“Your post comes off as super smug schmuck, implying that those who can’t afford to fly first class are just victims of their own poor life choices. Bad form,” someone said.

This story first appeared in the New York Post and was republished with permission.