A data center set to be built on southeast Michigan farmland is the latest example of what rural communities face as demand rapidly grows for sprawling warehouses to support artificial intelligence.

Data centers tend to bring influxes of local tax revenue and offer the promise of more economic development. But the relationship between data centers — backed by multibillion-dollar companies with deep pockets and strong political ties — and small jurisdictions is inherently unbalanced, as residents and officials in Saline Township, southwest of Ann Arbor, have learned.

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