Wind turbine technology is well known around the globe as an eco-friendly and effective renewable power source. However, this technology often faces reliability problems due to structural vibration. This study proposes a smart semi-active vibration control system using Magnetorheological (MR) dampers where feedback controllers are optimized with nature-inspired algorithms. Proportional integral derivative (PID) and Proportional integral (PI) controllers are designed to achieve the optimal desired force and current input for MR the damper. PID control parameters are optimized using an Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm. The effectiveness of the ACO algorithm is validated by comparing its performance with Ziegler-Nichols (Z-N) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). The placement of the MR damper on the tower is also investigated to ensure structural balance and optimal desired force from the MR damper. The simulation results show that the proposed semi-active PID-ACO control strategy can significantly reduce vibration on the wind turbine tower under different frequencies (i.e., 67%, 73%, 79% and 34.4% at 2 Hz, 3 Hz, 4.6 Hz and 6 Hz, respectively) and amplitudes (i.e. 50%, 58% and 67% for 50 N, 80 N, and 100 N, respectively). In this study, the simulation model is validated with an experimental study in terms of natural frequency, mode shape and uncontrolled response at the 1st mode. The proposed PID-ACO control strategy and optimal MR damper position is also implemented on a lab-scaled wind turbine tower model. The results show that the vibration reduction rate is 66% and 73% in the experimental and simulation study, respectively, at the 1st mode.