Source: NYT > Business (paywall)
Data center noise—particularly the low-frequency vibration from cooling systems and generators—is an externality of AI infrastructure expansion that tech companies have largely ignored in their siting decisions. Unlike previous tech booms concentrated in urban centers with existing zoning frameworks, the computational demands of large language models are driving facility construction in rural and suburban areas where residents have fewer legal protections and noise ordinances weren't designed for industrial-scale acoustic pollution. As companies optimize for land cost and power availability, they're externalizing health and quality-of-life costs onto communities with limited recourse or political leverage.