It would be said that Elon Musk has created A perfect circle Around what until recently it was an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Memphis. There has installed Colossusthe most monstrous supercomputer on the planet to boost AI to new limits and that it defines the future of cars (of Tesla). In order for the combo, it is complete to the richest type in the world, everything is in turn fed by the megabaterías of Tesla.
A Win Win For Musk’s framework, although with a problem: the neighbors.
A colossus … toxic. The story brought it This week the CNN. In the summer of 2024 Musk transformed an old abandoned factory in southwest Memphis into what he himself proclaimed as “the most powerful supercomputer on the planet.” The project, promoted by its artificial intelligence company XAIpromised to turn the city into a New Technological Mecca (The so -called “Delta Digital”) with Quality jobs and dozens of millions in taxes.
However, for Botxtown residents, a mostly black and impoverished community that has lived with decades with Industrial pollutionXai’s arrival has meant a déjà vu environmental: A new source of pollution settled without clear permits, with an apparent contempt for public health.
A computer that consumes. To feed “Colossus”, XAI installed 35 gas turbines capable of generating Up to 420 megawattsreleasing toxic gases Nitrogen oxidesultrafine and formaldehyde particles. The problem? Who did Without licenses of air required, welcomed to a legal exemption for temporary machinery, which according to experts does not correspond to it.
The area already houses 17 polluting facilities, and various studies indicate that the risk of cancer in the area quadrupple acceptable levels For the EPA. Memphis also has the higher rates of children’s hospitalizations by asthma in all Tennessee.
Realities. While the mayor of Memphis, Paul Young, celebrated the transformative potential of the project and anticipated more technological investment, local leaders such as state representative Justin Pearson They have denounced have been excluded from the process. The lack of transparency adds to an obvious regulatory collapse: an installation with the power of an electric plant operating without permits in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
To this we must add the most recent thermal snapshots (image below) that indicate that at least 33 of the turbines They were operational in April. Following the controversy, XAI finally requested permission for 15 of them and withdrew 12, but, as CNN counteddamage to trust is made.
Promises Project defenders say that “leading standards in emissions” will be achieved, but residents see the employer repeat: Employment promises well paid that do not specify (because the reality is that the data centers use very few), while the environmental load falls on those who have less resources to defend themselves.
Plus: The story of Botxtown It is not new. Already in 2021, its inhabitants achieved stop a pipeline that would cross their lands, and in 2023 they closed A sterilization plant that emitted ethylene oxide. For them, therefore, XAI is simply the last chapter of a long struggle for the right … to breathe.
Innovation or regression. It is the last of the legs to be treated with the controversy. XAI installation reflects a broader national dilemma than We have counted before on the rise of artificial intelligence and its real cost. Amid the enthusiasm for turning the United States into the “Global Capital of AI” (according to New EPA Guidelines Under the government of Donald Trump), the expansion of data centers Devoradors of energy advances without a serious evaluation of its environmental implicationsespecially in vulnerable communities.
The unconditional support of the Executive to Musk, one of Trump’s closest advisors, coincided with the Weakening of environmental policiesthe elimination of ecological justice programs and a rhetoric that prioritizes economic efficiency over human health.
The first “stone.” The contradiction seems clear: IA is promoted as the future, but it is fed with fossil technologies of the past, generating private benefits while the risks and damage are socialized. “If innovation chains you to fossil fuels, that’s not progress,” Keshaun Pearson remembereddirector of Memphis Community Against Pollution. Thus, residents fear that what happens in Memphis is just a general essay of what could soon be replicated in similar neighborhoods throughout the country.
A tireless struggle. He counted An NBC report That in Botxtown, indignation coexists with fatigue. Many, such as Sarah Gladney (respiratory and resident patient to a few km from the installation), feel they live in a perpetual battle. The possibility of a second meginstalization of XAI, already projected in the city, only increases the sensation of siege. “It seems that we are always at war,” He underlined.
A paradox, since while local officials speak of economic transformation, neighbors simply speak of survival. In the background, the collision between the promises of peak technology and the old reality of systemic pollution raises an uncomfortable question: Who pays the price of this digital revolution?
In the southwest Memphis, the answer seems sadly clear.
Image | Southwings for the Southern Environmental Law Center
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