Basura, Big Data Launch $99 Bezzy Plushie as Satire Targets AI Data Centers
Updated
Updated · WIRED · Sep 18
Basura, Big Data Launch $99 Bezzy Plushie as Satire Targets AI Data Centers
1 articles · Updated · WIRED · Sep 18
Summary
Only 20 handmade Bezzy dolls went on sale for $99 as Basura and producer Alan Wilkis’ Big Data launched “Adopt a Data Center,” a satirical campaign timed to a new single release.
Each plush server rack plays a few seconds of shrill noise recorded by a Virginia data-center neighbor, turning complaints about constant hum and high-pitched alarms into the project’s central hook.
Basura said dozens of interviews with residents near US data centers shaped the campaign, which links buyers to research on facilities’ land use, energy demand, gas-power expansion and local impacts.
The broader message is less about banning AI infrastructure than about who decides where data centers are built, what resources they consume and whether nearby communities share in the benefits.