Data Center Plushie Squeals With Real Noise to Satirize AI's Hidden Costs

A New York creative studio has unveiled an unusual piece of social commentary: a cuddly plushie server rack that screams when squeezed. Called Bezzy, the doll is the centerpiece of Adopt a Data Center, a satirical campaign highlighting the real-world costs of the infrastructure supporting AI.

The Noisy Truth Behind AI#

When you squeeze Bezzy's torso, it emits an ear-piercing wail—an actual recording captured by a neighbor of a Virginia data center. The sound is intentionally irritating: high-pitched, grinding, and impossible to ignore. The collaboration between the studio Basura and musician Alan Wilkis of Big Data leverages this visceral experience to force a reckoning with how data centers operate in the real world.

Data centers built by tech giants to run AI systems now sprawl across thousands of acres in the United States. They draw criticism on multiple fronts: energy consumption, gas power expansion, and noise pollution. Communities adjacent to these facilities have filed complaints about constant humming and mechanical noise that disrupts daily life.

Satire as a Gateway to Facts#

The plushie itself—with its googly eyes, long limbs, and server-rack silhouette—combines dark whimsy with a pointed message. Only 20 handmade dolls are available for $99, but the physical product isn't the campaign's main objective. Rather, the plushie serves as bait. Visitors to the Adopt a Data Center website who click to "adopt" are redirected to a statement packed with research links and journalism exploring data centers' role in communities, energy grids, and American wealth distribution.

The campaign also includes stickers with slogans like "Every data center deserves a forever home" and "Open your heart. And your power grid."—tongue-in-cheek appeals that mask a serious undertone.

The Bigger Picture#

Rajeev Basu, founder of Basura, says the project grew from dozens of interviews with people living near data centers. The core question framing the campaign is blunt: not whether AI infrastructure should exist, but "who gets to decide where they go, what resources they consume, and whether the communities living beside them actually benefit."

Wilkis frames AI data centers as the physical manifestation of decades of wealth concentration in America. With tech stocks dominating market value and AI's success tied to the survival of mega-cap firms, the infrastructure needed to power these systems carries social and environmental weight that few citizens witness directly—until now, when a plushie makes them hear it.