Zoo issues plea to public after controversial data centre set to open next to animal habitats
Plans to build and run a data centre next door to Nashville Zoo are very unpopular with several hundred thousand people and the zoo itself.
Data centres are the next big thing people want to build to fuel AI development so ChatGPT can more effectively apologise when it makes something up in response to a question.
AI needs them to handle the volume of requests but there are very few people who want one built right next to them, and that includes Nashville Zoo.
The zoo recently warned that a data centre 'could be located just feet away from one of the most fragile and rare collections of animals in the country' unless something was done to stop it.
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They said that plans were in place 'to build a 69,000 square feet data center on land abutting the zoo', which they clearly don't support.
Nashville Zoo said that as well as a data centre there were other buildings including a substation and support structures that would be next to them and they're worried about noise pollution, light pollution and what a data centre might to do the water supply in the area.
They're worried that the around 3,000 animals they've got might be disturbed by the data centre and its consequences, thrown off their sleep cycles and suffering for it all.
The zoo claims that the nearby data centre would be chugging through enough power to keep over 30,000 homes going, and putting all of that right next to a zoo and its habitats is what's got them concerned.
Stressing the animals out might risk conservation efforts the zoo is aiming to undertake, including a clouded leopard breeding program they want to do.
Nashville Zoo also raised concerns about the impact a data centre had on the surrounding area, pointing towards a case in Memphis which Wbur reported on where locals had concerns over what would happen to people living around a site.
At time of writing a petition to appeal against the data centre being built by the zoo is just a few shy of getting 600,000 signatures.
The zoo has since said that the future around the possible data centre construction is 'uncertain', but in recent months there's been legislation worked on that is meant to regulate data centre construction and where they can be built.
Last month Nashville passed a bill which means the city can buy the land the data centre would be built on and use it for public needs, and for now the zoo is stuck hoping that they won't have a data centre for a neighbour.
Joe Harker