Space Karen has sprung up a new data center in the Memphis area in order to power his Grok chatbot. It is, unsurprisingly, an environmental nightmare. It will require a million gallons of water a day and enough electricity to power one hundred thousand homes per year. And, of course, it is being powered largely by methane generators. Even worse, Musk is apparently breaking the law in order to provide his power, not speaking to local politicians, and keeping power officials from speaking to local officials:
Musk has yet to make a public appearance, and officials from the local utility who were briefed on the project signed nondisclosure agreements, according to the utility’s spokeswoman. The NDAs were first reported by Forbes. The news dropped on Memphis in a press conference in June that was announced with little notice and caught members of the City Council, environmental agencies and the community off guard.
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The limited oversight and rushed nature of this project have allowed xAI to skirt environmental rules, which could impact the surrounding communities. For instance, the company’s on-site methane gas generators currently don’t have permits.
And, of course, it is going to harm the health of the people who live near the data center:
“They have a very serious air pollution problem,” says Garcia from the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Southwest Memphis is ground zero.”
Garcia, Pearson and other environmental justice advocates fear that xAI will add to the pollution burden of this already overburdened community, because of its high demand for energy. They say it’s particularly concerning that the project has had little government oversight and the community has been left out of the process.
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According to the Southern Environmental Law Center, it’s estimated these generators can provide enough electricity to power 50,000 homes. And they have the capacity to emit 130 tons of harmful nitrogen oxides per year, potentially making them a major source of the pollutant in Memphis.
xAI doesn’t have air permits for these turbines, according to the Shelby County Health Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.
And for what? Mostly deepfakes:
xAI’s central focus is a tool called Grok. It’s an AI chatbot, similar to ChatGPT, that the company flaunts as “having a sense of humor.” Musk has called it the “most fun AI in the world.” It has fewer rules than other AI chatbots and has been known for creating controversial deepfake images, such as Mickey Mouse as a Nazi and Kamala Harris in lingerie.
This is sadly unsurprising. It is on par with Altman’s claim that AI cannot be made to be profitable if they have to pay for the work they have stolen to train their models. We know that imitative AI is largely useless. Yes, it can do somethings on the edges. But nothing transformative, nothing that justifies the cost of running these models or the environmental damage that they do. It is all so tiresome.
Because I love technology, I really do. I love the promise of it, the very real promise it has to make all of our lives better. The very real way it has already mad e all of our lives better. Those of us who benefit from modern technology are able to live lives that are potentially more connected with those we love, more educated and knowledgeable, safer, and healthier than at any time in human history. We should be celebrating things like the advance of clean energy and the advances in medical technology that quite literally, in the last two years, saved my life and, more importantly, the life of my wife. Instead, we are having to pretend that Fancy Clippy is on par with the industrial revolution.
We need to stop indulging these children. We need to stop giving them unlimited money. We need to stop shielding them from liability. We need to stop indulging their fantasy that they are somehow worthy of short circuiting the democratic process because their systems are good at autocomplete. We need to stop pretending that software is important just because its software. We need less hero worship and more common sense.
And maybe then we can stop building toys and start building the real future, for all of us.
