Nashville Zoo tries to halt proposed AI data center

The zoo this week launched an online petition against the data center that, as of Friday, had more than 180,000 signatures and 25,000 shares on Facebook.

A nationwide backlash against artificial intelligence data centers has a new ally: the leopards of the Nashville Zoo.

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The zoo, a popular destination in Tennessee’s capital city, is trying to block a proposed 69,000-square-foot data center from being built next door. The zoo says that the facility would be about 50 yards from some of its animals and that the noise could disturb its residents, including a leap of leopards that hail originally from Southeast Asia.

“We are vehemently opposed to having a data center so close to animals,” said Rick Schwartz, the Nashville Zoo’s president and CEO, in a phone interview Friday.