(
Not
In
My
Back
Yard) Whenever a manufacturing plant, warehouse or other facility is planned for construction that is objectionable to the local inhabitants, "not in my backward" (NIMBY) becomes the rallying cry. NIMBYism refers to that condition. Contrast with
YIMBY.
AI Data Centers
The current NIMBY howl is about the construction of data centers for AI processing. They require enormous amounts of electricity and water, and they take up a huge amount of space. For example, Elon Musk's data center is expected to take up a hundred million square feet (see
Terafab). Depending on the electrical generation used along with other factors, AI data centers may make low- or high-frequency noise up to a mile away. See
AI data center.