Adopt This Data Center Plushie and Hear Its Piercing Scream

The AI boom's environmental and community costs are now being called out through physical products and interactive art.

A satirical art project called Adopt a Data Center, a collaboration between creative studio Basura and musician Alan Wilkis (Big Data), introduces the Bezzy doll, a plush toy designed to represent a data center. The doll, priced at $99 with only 20 available, emits a piercing scream when squeezed – a recording from a resident near a Virginia data center. This initiative aims to draw attention to the significant energy consumption, land use, and noise pollution associated with the proliferation of data centers powering AI technologies. The project, launching concurrently with a new Big Data single, seeks to foster critical thinking about the placement and impact of these facilities on surrounding communities. Accompanying stickers further critique the data center expansion and its connection to wealth inequality.

This project highlights a growing trend of artists and cultural commentators using tangible products and direct engagement to critique the infrastructure underpinning emerging technologies like AI. By personifying the often-invisible data center into a "cuddly" but screaming plushie, Basura and Big Data are making abstract issues of energy consumption and noise pollution relatable and visceral. This approach bypasses typical industry discussions, targeting a broader public by making the "un-vogue" reality of data centers a conversation starter through satire and interactive art.

The limited release and high price point of the Bezzy doll suggest the project is less about mass consumerism and more about creating a unique cultural artifact that drives engagement with the underlying issues. The accompanying website's resource links and the emphasis on community impact over mere existence of data centers signal a critical stance on the power dynamics and equitable distribution of resources related to AI development. This artistic intervention could inspire similar projects that humanize or confront the physical realities of technological progress, forcing a reconsideration of its societal implications beyond technological advancement.