Jason Kelce asks fans to mail their urine to an AI data center: 'We want your pee'

Data center opposition appears to have firmly reached the mainstream, with Jason Kelce's request for fans to 'mail their urine' to AI infrastructure amid water usage concerns suggesting that it's the popular position.

There are over 5,000 operational data centers currently build in the United States alone with many more set to crop up in the coming years, and people aren't too happy with how they're impacting people's lives.

While not all of them are used to power AI software, the rapidly growing demands of the tech have prompted the expansion and made the power requirements even more evident.

One of the biggest talking points surrounding this infrastructure is the amount of water they require, and Jason Kelce has come up with a rather unorthodox solution to the issue, calling on fans to join him in lending a hand.

Jason Kelce asks fans to mail their pee to data centers

'Let's pee on computers together, save humanity' are the words sung by Jason Kelce in a new advert for his alcoholic beverage, Garage Beer, which directly calls out the overwhelming amount of water used by AI data centers.

"AI data centers waste millions of gallons of water," Kelce declared while peeing into a glass jug, announcing a collaboration between Garage Beer and Liquid Death that asks people to mail their urine to data centers.

It's not the first time that someone has used pee to target tech giants, with a stunt at this year's Met Gala targeting Jeff Bezos amid accusations that Amazon workers had to urinate in bottles, but Kelce's call to action reflects the wider concerns and overall sentiment that many have towards the water usage of data centers.

The collaboration also produced a new product – the Liquid Death x Garage Beer Data Center Coolant Collector – which is the very same jar that Kelce peed into during the advert, and it has already sold out.

Are the water demands of data centers really that bad?

While Kelce's advert is a little tongue in cheek, the broader worries about water usage are very much real, with scientists and global organizations indicating the risks that will emerge if current trends continue.

A new report from the United Nations University indicates that data centers already drink more water in a year than the entire human race needs to survive for a year and a half, which equates to roughly 9.3 trillion liters (2.5 billion gallons) — although AI usage currently 'only' accounts for 20% of that.

Many of the biggest tech companies and AI labs have downplayed the environmental impact of their operations, pointing towards low carbon numbers to deflect, yet that doesn't tell the whole story.

"'Low-carbon' is not automatically 'low-water' or 'low-land'," the UN report indicates, "and evaluating sustainability through a single metric can hide trade-off and shift burdens onto places already facing water stress or land pressure."

Water availability is relative after all – especially as data centers can't just use any old water sources – meaning that areas with associated infrastructure are disproporitionately impacted in the short- and long-term, with many already seeing it impact their homes and daily lives.