Among all the other things about AI, it is noisy. All the time. 24/7. Noisy.
Elon Musk’s xAI complex consists of multiple data centers, a busy construction site and a power plant, currently consisting of about 60 truck-sized gas turbines. The resulting noise is traveling into the surrounding community and penetrating some people’s homes. Jason Haley, a resident in Southaven, Miss., filed a citizen lawsuit against the SpaceX-owned company over this noise.
Experts say this noise is more than a nuisance, leading to stress, lost sleep and lower property values.
“The number one problem is that this is a 24/7 noise source and there is no escaping,” said Mathias Basner, who researches noise at the University of Pennsylvania.
Caroline Eggers reports that xAI set up turbines one year ago and recently said it will remove them in one year while also adding noise-reduction measures.
Meanwhile, Musk told investors last month that he was targeting a tenfold expansion of the complex’s capacity to 20 gigawatts -- more than half of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s entire seven-state grid -- without any details on what that would look or sound like.
Tap link in bio for the full story and follow for more from Caroline Eggers.
Photos and video: Musk video public domain, Caroline Eggers / WPLN, Christopher Blank / WKNO-FM, video library and Mathias Basner TED talk
Metro Nashville has filed seven lawsuits against the federal government over funding losses since President Donald Trump began his second term.
The cases, which are jointly filed with other localities and supported by the Public Rights Project, allege that the Trump administration has acted unconstitutionally by canceling or redefining the terms around dollars that had already been appropriated by Congress.
The seven challenges can be categorized into two types: There are four lawsuits challenging federal grants that were eliminated outright, while the other three cases take issue with the federal government attaching new conditions to grants that had already been appropriated.
WPLN’s Cynthia Abrams has followed the cases and reports on where they stand.
Tap the link in bio for the full story.
Photos: Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP Photo
Money from a legal settlement with Volkswagen is helping pay for more electric vehicle chargers for Tennessee renters.
The new program focuses on apartments and multi-family housing. Owners and property managers can get rebates of up to 60% of the cost for new chargers.
To understand where the funding comes from, you have to go back roughly a decade to a scandal known as “Dieselgate.” For years, VW had been marketing cars as “clean diesel,” while installing devices to cheat on emissions testing. In reality, the cars were sometimes emitting dozens of times the legal limit of pollution.
That eventually led to VW paying a $15 billion settlement, some of which helps pay for program to lower pollution and support EV adoption. In past years in Tennessee, that’s included efforts to add a statewide network of fast charging stations.
EVs have been slow to gain popularity in the state. About 5% of new passenger vehicles sold in Tennessee are EVs; that’s about half the national rate, and far behind the global average of around 25%.
Tap link in bio for the full story from environmental reporter Caroline Eggers.
Images: Anderson-EV/Unsplash
Notable quotables for the week took a dive into the common threads in Nashville’s seven ongoing lawsuits against the Trump Administration. They’re largely focused on federal funding — canceled grants, new conditions on money Congress already promised. The cases have seen early successes, with the courts at least temporarily halting the revocations.
State Rep. John Ray Clemmons is among the critics of Gov. Bill Lee’s “Choice Lanes” project on Interstate 24. The state awarded the construction and management contract to a consortium of private-sector companies called Drive TN. It spans 50 years and is expected to be worth $10 billion.
There is a lot of discussion about data center proposals in Tennessee, but Gallatin has already had a hyperscale project operating in its borders for two years. It’s the top tax revenue contributor for the city government, but it still has critics in its neighborhood.
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Nobody really teaches you how any of this voting stuff works.
We are talking about how your vote gets counted, why Nashville`s district lines changed, or whether a single vote even matters in a state like Tennessee. It’s hard to figure out — particularly in a social media flood of information.
Nashville Public Radio covers elections and voting as part of our duty to public service and our community. So we`re opening our doors and inviting you in to talk about it.
On October 6th, from 6 - 8pm we are inviting you inside our station. We will be putting the people who run elections in the same room as the people who report on them. Bring your concerns, questions, thoughts. We can delve into it all.
One night. Real discussion and answers about elections and voting. No question is too basic.
This election event is free, with convenient free parking. This is best suited for folks 18 years old and up. Space is limited.
Tap link in bio to RSVP today.
License plate readers (LPRs) have been on the front lines of debate this summer.
And now lawmakers say they will take the reins on writing legislation to potentially place regulations on the policing technology when session starts in January.
For now, activists and police don’t see eye-to-eye on licence plate reader usage.
Tap link in bio for the full story.
Reporter: Emily West
Photo: Emily West
A race toward a century-old dream of near-infinite energy from fusion is heating up across the U.S. And Tennessee just took one step forward.
The state issued the nation’s first license for a nuclear fusion power plant this week to Type One Energy. The company envisions bringing a fusion power plant online by 2034 near Knoxville.
But the project will start with building a prototype — as fusion and the infrastructure required to produce a lot of energy from it still require more research.
As Caroline Eggers reports, Type One Energy began its story in Madison, Wisconsin in 2019 and opened an office in Oak Ridge several years later. The startup has a number of investors, including the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy.
In 2024, the company announced plans to build a prototype machine at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s closed Bull Run Fossil Plant in Clinton. At the time, it said that construction could begin as early as the following year. The company submitted formal plans to Tennessee regulators in January, and it now plans to break ground on the prototype this year.
The project will also entail setting up a research site through a partnership with TVA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee.
Tap link in bio to subscribe to the NashVillager — get local stories and national news, updates, and ticket giveaways.
Notable quotables for the week looked into the disconnect between public pushback on surveillance technology and its growing popularity among law enforcement agencies in Tennessee.
They also looked into an underexplored risk of data centers: noise pollution. In Memphis, Elon Musk’s X-AI data centers and the gas turbines that power them are creating inescapable walls of sound for their neighbors.
A new state report detailed moment-by-moment how workers at Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown accidentally filled epidural syringes with potassium phosphate instead of anesthesia drugs. That medication can wreak havoc on the cardiovascular and nervous systems. Several patients of the four surgical patients went into cardiac arrest, and all of them were paralyzed for an unknown amount of time.
Tap link in bio for our in-depth stories and to sign up for the NashVillager newsletter, a human-powered 5-day-a-week email direct to your inbox with local stories, info, and ticket giveaways.
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‘They’re putting kids’ lives at risk’: How abuse in a Tennessee businessman’s juvenile prisons remained under wraps
Tennessee’s highest-security youth prisons are operated by a single private company. Former staff say they felt pressure to hide abuse and other serious incidents from the state and to handle medical emergencies without calling 911.
Curious Nashville Returns!
Back by popular demand, the WPLN fan favorite series Curious Nashville is here to investigate oddities, share local history, tell stories of interesting people, and explain how local institutions operate.
You ask the questions, and we answer.
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