More or Less · Topics · Episode #163
Pee in a Jar to Cool the Data Centers: Inside the Real AI Backlash
Clip from the full recording, 49:59–54:03 · download mp4 · watch at this point on YouTube
A viral Jason Kelce/Liquid Death ad urges people to send their urine to cool data centers, and Dave says the joke is really about something serious: rural America doesn't care about AI at all, and where it does care, it's sick of AI slop -- not water usage.
Jess flags a genuinely surreal internet moment: a Jason Kelce ad for Liquid Death that opens on the premise that data centers are draining the water supply and urges viewers to pee in a jar and mail it in to help cool them. Brit’s favorite reaction, from a commenter, captures the tone: “no fucking way I’m sending my pee with my DNA to that data center… I’m gonna send my cat’s pee instead.” Sam grants there’s a real, narrow version of the water concern – Lake Mead specifically – but otherwise treats the ad as pure comedy rather than policy.
Brit then reports from the ground: after weeks in rural America (Montana), her read is that essentially no one there uses AI, cares about AI, or has an opinion on data centers at all – “they actively do not care.” Dave agrees and reframes the entire debate: the actual backlash energy isn’t about water or land use, it’s that people are sick of AI showing up uninvited in their lives – AI-generated emails at work, AI slop in their feeds – and that visceral dislike of the outputs, not an environmental argument, is what’s really driving anti-data-center sentiment. Brit’s own field evidence for AI’s actual current use case: slightly better real estate listing photos.
Key points
- A Jason Kelce/Liquid Death ad went viral urging people to pee in a jar and send it in to help cool data centers, framed as satire of AI water-usage panic.
- Sam concedes one real exception: Lake Mead's water stress is a legitimate, specific concern, unlike the ad's broader premise.
- Brit, reporting from weeks in rural Montana: people there are neutral-to-negative on AI and simply don't engage with it or the data-center debate at all.
- Dave's reframe: the backlash isn't really about water or land -- it's that people find AI outputs (essays, videos, apps) viscerally unpleasant, captured by the term "AI slop."
- Dave: people are especially fatigued by AI showing up uninvited in work contexts, like AI-written emails.
- Brit's on-the-ground evidence of AI's actual current use case outside tech circles: marginally better real estate listing photos.
- Jess worries the backlash could realistically escalate to political action against data-center construction, even if a full federal ban is unlikely.
Where they landed
Quotes
“No fucking way I'm sending my pee with my DNA to that data center. I don't want AI all up on me like that. I'm gonna send my cat's pee instead.”— Brit
“No one cares. They actively do not care... what people actually care about is they're sick of people sending them AI slop.”— Dave
“It's about this feeling that people have that AI just sucks. It's not that great to interact with -- reading one of these essays, watching a video, or even the apps that get created. A lot of them are just slop.”— Dave
Suggested tweets
A Jason Kelce ad wants you to pee in a jar to cool data centers. Brit Morin's favorite reply: “I'm gonna send my cat's pee instead.”
Tweet this →Dave Morin, back from weeks in rural Montana: “No one cares [about AI]. They actively do not care.”
Tweet this →The real AI backlash isn't about water, says Dave Morin -- it's that people are sick of AI slop showing up uninvited in their lives.
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