US war veteran's home threatened by Elon Musk's AI data centre in Tennessee

Loretta Thornton says noise and fumes have affected her quality of life, while her power bill has doubled. (ABC News: Bradley McLennan) After serving in the US military during the Gulf War, veteran Loretta Thornton settled in a wooded home in Memphis, Tennessee. Living with post-traumatic stress disorder, she named her house 'Serenity' and spent 11 peaceful years there. That peace ended when Elon Musk's technology company, xAI, built a huge computing facility in an abandoned warehouse next door. The site, known as Colossus II, is now the largest operating data centre in the United States. Thornton says the constant noise and fumes have badly affected her quality of life, while rising local power demand has doubled her electricity bill. "When they cranked this up, I thought I was back in Desert Storm," Thornton said. "I thought I was stuck back in the middle of a war. That's what it sounds like to me." In reporting for Australia's ABC News, journalist Bradley McLennan documented how the industrial site operates around the clock. Thornton describes a constant sound similar to jet engines and fumes from gas turbines that burn her eyes and throat. "I feel stomach-fold-up-sucker-punched...