Adopt This Data Center Plushie and Hear Its Piercing Scream

Primary Journalistic Dispatch & Direct Reporting

Courtesy of Big Data Save this story Save this story Uh oh, we got a cute alert! It's Bezzy, your adorable, cuddly, anthropomorphized server-rack and stuffed-animal friend! Give this soft lil' doll a squeeze, and it shall sing you its telltale song: the piercing, grinding ambient squeals emitted from a real US data center.

The Bezzy doll is a stuffed plushie made in a satirical collaboration between the New York - based creative studio Basura and Big Data , the musical project of producer Alan Wilkis, best known for the song " Dangerous ," a 2013 collaboration with the band Joywave. The joint project, which is coming out the same day as a new Big Data single , is called Adopt a Data Center . The goal is to present people with a "cuddly introduction to life with a real data center."

Data Centers are very un -vogue right now. Built out by all the big AI companies to power their increasingly power-hungry AI tools, data centers have spread across thousands of acres of land in the US. They have been heavily criticized for their energy consumption and expansion of gas power . They have also proven to be audibly annoying, stirring up complaints about noise pollution from those nearby.

In-Depth Developments & Factual Context

The Adopt a Data Center stunt aims to make people think differently about how services produced by data centers fit into their lives. That manifests as a plush stuffie that looks like a server rack in a data center, albeit with long arms and legs and googly eyes. It's cute in the way Don't Hug Me I'm Scared is cute. Squeeze Bezzy's torso and the sound bursts out. It's a screeching few seconds of a recording taken by a neighbor of a data center in Virginia. The tag on the Bezzy plushie reads, "Hug me for ear-piercing forever hum."

"We picked this recording as it was the clearest and most suitably irritating," wrote Rajeev Basu, the founder of Basura, in an email to WIRED. In an interview with the person who recorded the audio, Basu says they described the sound as "like a car alarm going off nonstop. It's high-pitched, and it's all you can focus on."

Basura has worked on other projects like making luxury wear for dogs and a partnership with Yerba Madre that made dirt shoes designed to break apart during a walk to spread wildflower seeds.

Industry Impact & Strategic Analysis

Along with Bezzy, the data centers project includes a collection of stickers that say things like "Every data center deserves a forever home" and "Open your heart. And your power grid." Basu says the project is the result of dozens of interviews with people who live near data centers in the US. The website itself reads, "Adopt a data center: All they ask for is everything."

Wilkis, whose band Big Data has "It's giving Black Mirror , but make it music" in its Spotify description, says that the one upside of the data center debate is that the backlash is genuinely bipartisan .

"AI is a proxy for decades of widening wealth inequality in America, and data centers are its physical embodiment," Wilkis wrote to WIRED. "With roughly 40 percent of the stock market's value riding on a handful of tech companies, the US economy is already a bet on AI's success."

Forward Outlook & Market Perspective

Sadly, only 20 Bezzy dolls are available for $99 from the Adopt a Data Center website and the Big Data storefront . Basura designed the toys, which are handmade in the US. But the physical toy isn't the real point. The satire is meant to hook people into looking at the facts for themselves. When you click "adopt now" on the website, you're taken to a statement with links to research and stories about how data centers fit into the world.

"It's not about whether AI data centers should exist," Basu says. "It's about who gets to decide where they go, what resources they consume, and whether the communities living beside them actually benefit."

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Boone Ashworth is a staff writer on the WIRED Gear desk, where he writes about connected hardware, sustainability, and the right to repair. He graduated from San Francisco State University and still lives in the city. He is currently training to be a virtual reality DJ. ... Read More Staff Writer Topics data centers data artificial intelligence art toys politics Read More Candidates Are Signing a Pact Promising Action on Data Centers and AI Safety More than 15 politicians from across the country have signed on to the AI Pact, vowing to regulate data centers and AI. "We've got to get this right," says Senate candidate Dan Osborn of Nebraska. Molly Taft Inside Meta's Push to Put Robots to Work in Data Centers The company is testing robots that can swap cables, reset servers, and take on other tasks performed by technicians, fueling concerns among some workers that their jobs could be at risk. Paresh Dave Gen AI Tools Are Now Being Used to Push 'Slop Jihad' A new generation of Islamic terror supporters are using AI to spread 'Slop Jihad' to new audiences on TikTok. David Gilbert Submit Your Questions: Why Is Silicon Valley Still a Boy's Club? How are women really faring in Silicon Valley? Submit your questions to our panel and we'll give you the scoop. Sandra Upson Apple Doesn't Want You to Worry About the New Apple Watch's Listening Features The new Apple Watch includes several "intelligent" listening features that have privacy and security baked in. But the protections can't change the facts of what the tools do. Lily Hay Newman Silicon Valley Doesn't Get Why You Hate AI Technology leaders don't seem to understand society's gripes about AI, but boy, are they posting through it. Maxwell Zeff The Single English County Saying No to Palantir The UK government is facing calls to cancel a sprawling health care contract with Palantir. The region of Greater Manchester insists it can do a better job itself. Joel Khalili The UK Power Grid Has a Phantom Data Center Problem The UK's energy regulator is using a variety of tricks to keep speculative data center projects from plugging into the power grid. The country's AI ambitions hang in the balance. Joel Khalili The Leftist Split Over AI Doom The left wants AI regulation. They just can't agree on what it should look like or how concerned they should be. Vittoria Elliott Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera. Its Data Shows How the System Really Works A hacker collective pulled down a Flock camera and dumped its data. The files included thousands of videos and logs showing that the device captured 1.6 million images of 50,000 vehicles in 21 days. Dhruv Mehrotra The Cybersecurity Apocalypse Is Coming in 'Months,' AI Giants Warn Plus: Hackers target over 100 US water systems, ICE puts in an order for robot dogs, and you'll never guess what "MrChildPorn" was arrested for. Maddy Varner From Hacks to Bioweapons, Claude Misuse Is Now Everywhere Plus: The US disrupts the internet's biggest black market, a Conti ransomware hacker gets prison time, Meta fails to stop AI-generated videos of child abuse. Andy Greenberg Wired Coupons Code promo Canon 10% Off Canon Promo Code + Up to 30% Off

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