Polaroid tells people to jump in some water 'before the data centers drink it all up'

Polaroid is taking another shot at AI — this time by targeting the massive data centers powering the technology.

The 89-year-old camera company recently unveiled a billboard at Brooklyn, New York's iconic Coney Island Beach that reads: "Go jump in some water before the data centers drink it all up."

Polaroid is one of a growing crop of brands leaning into anti-AI marketing. The company's latest ad is part of its global marketing campaign titled "the best of summer is analog," tied to the launch of its new Go Generation 3 camera.

In an Instagram post on Monday, the company echoed the billboard's message and wrote in a caption: "There'll come a day when the things we took for granted can never be taken again. Obviously, we're being a bit cheeky with our line here, but still."

"Go take a swim. Go take a stroll. Go embrace the beautiful, simple, wild, analog stuff. That's where the best of summer, and life, lives," Polaroid wrote.

"While our campaigns are provocative and challenge our relationship with technology, we're not anti-digital," Polaroid's creative director, Patricia Varella, said in a release. "We know we have to live alongside it, but we're deeply pro-human, and know what humanity gives us. And we know what we stand to lose if we don't protect it. That's a fight worth fighting.

Polaroid's message touches on a growing debate over the environmental impact of the AI boom.

Data centers can use vast amounts of water both directly for cooling servers and indirectly through the electricity needed to power them.

A previous Business Insider investigation found that some of the largest data center facilities in the US were permitted to use more water each day than nearly 49,000 Americans would typically use.

Some tech leaders have pushed back on criticism surrounding data centers' water use, arguing that advances in cooling technologies — including closed-loop systems — are making AI infrastructure more efficient.

Earlier this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman disputed what he called "totally insane" claims circulating online that the AI firm is consuming large amounts of water to power ChatGPT.

"Water is totally fake," Altman said, when asked about concerns over AI companies' water use. "It used to be true, we used to do evaporative cooling in data centers, but now that we don't do that, you know, you see these like things on the internet where, 'Don't use ChatGPT, it's 17 gallons of water for each query' or whatever."

AI chipmaker Nvidia this week announced a "liquid cooling" system designed to help data centers run hotter while using less water.

"We have eliminated massive amounts of power usage and pretty much all water usage," Ali Heydari, Nvidia's director of data center cooling and infrastructure, said in a statement.