The Nashville Zoo has launched a public campaign to block construction of a proposed 69,000-square-foot AI data center that would sit directly adjacent to habitats for endangered animals, including vulnerable clouded leopards.
Zoo officials warn that the facility’s constant noise, bright artificial lighting, and electrical hum could seriously disrupt animal behavior, stress levels, and long-established breeding programs. The zoo is home to more than 3,700 animals representing over 350 species and maintains one of the most important collections of rare and endangered wildlife in the United States.
This conflict highlights a growing backlash against the rapid expansion of data centers driven by the AI boom. These facilities require massive amounts of electricity and operate 24 hours a day, prompting communities nationwide to raise concerns about energy consumption, water use, noise pollution, and environmental impacts. Wildlife conservation groups are now joining the resistance.
More than 180,000 people have already signed a petition opposing the project.
The developer behind the data center states that it will use waterless cooling systems, meet all local noise regulations, and comply with environmental standards. However, zoo leaders argue that the location itself, immediately next to sensitive animal habitats, makes the project unacceptable regardless of technical mitigations.
The dispute underscores a broader challenge of the AI era: how to build the vast digital infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence without placing undue pressure on local communities, ecosystems, and wildlife.
@D_smra@JBabunski0@StariPragista93@Alex98731 Nasi saveznici iz dva svetska rata su nas izdali i bombardovali osiromasenim uranijumom. Ti nasi saveznici vise ne postoje, ostali su u proslosti isto kao slika i secanje na ono sto su nekad bili. Danas su nam saveznici oni koji ne rade protiv nacionalnih interesa.
@D_smra@StariPragista93@JBabunski0@Alex98731 Nece te postovati oni pred kojima si ponizan i od kojih prihvatas sve sto traze. Kada imas dostojanstva i ponos, imas i neprijatelje, ali ako se odreknes samopostovanje, neprijateljstvo i prezir ostaju.
@interesting_aIl for those who dont already know!!! you can set https://t.co/UArrvkOfuj as your default and it will never show ai summary and try its best to exclude ai images (pc/mac/linux only not doable on mobile afaik :( )
Google says AI will now dominate its search experience. When we tested vague queries that might require some digging, the chatbot tried to strike up a personal conversation instead 🤡
Suno - a company that trained on "essentially all music files of reasonable quality that are accessible on the open Internet", and argues it does not need to pay to do so - is now valued at $5.4 billion.
They will pay for GPUs, and for engineers, but not, apparently, for the music they use - other people's music - without which their models would not work.
I know lots of musicians who will be upset. I am with them.
It is telling that AI developers who say privately they believe their use of other people's copyrighted work is legal will never admit publicly to using it unless they are forced to by the courts.
They know that, even if by some cruel twist of fate it’s determined to be legal (and I hope it won’t be), most people - especially the people whose work they are exploiting, but by no means only them - think it’s wrong.
Exploitation is unpopular. This is why the AI industry hides it.
Exhausted after spending hours trapped in a fishing net, this beaver was fortunate to be spotted and rescued by kind-hearted people just in time. Once freed, he didn’t rush back into the water. Instead, he lingered on the boat, quietly looking back at the people who had saved him.
In that touching moment, it felt as though he was trying to say “thank you” in his own special way. 🦫❤���
@DuckDuckGo Press hard on your angle as pro-human, and not pro-ai search engine. It will work better and better as regular people start to hate AI more and more.
People don't want AI forced on them. DuckDuckGo lets you choose.
The result? Since Google's AI overhaul, our U.S. installs peaked yesterday at 76% above the pre-announcement average, and we broke our single-day search record. 🔥
It's not a blip, it's a movement. Fire Google.