When Elon Musk’s xAI opened a data center called Colossus in South Memphis for its chatbot, Grok, local politicians and business leaders hailed it as the first step towards turning Greater Memphis into “America’s Digital Delta.” But residents soon noticed they were getting sick – and blamed the data center’s methane gas turbines, installed without permits to support the center’s massive electricity needs. Now South Memphis has become a flashpoint in the growing debate over the human and environmental costs of powering AI.

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Featured in this episode:

KeShaun Pearson

Sources:

Reporting by the Memphis Commercial Appeal

Time’s “We Are the Last of the Forgotten: Inside the Memphis Community Battling Elon Musk’s xAI” 

https://time.com/7308925/elon-musk-memphis-ai-data-center/ 

The Wall Street Journal’s “Elon Musk Gambles Billions in Memphis to Catch Up on AI”

https://www.wsj.com/tech/elon-musk-xai-memphis-tennessee-power-dec4c70d 

The Natural Resources Defense Council’s “The AI Boom Is Stressing the Grid—But It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way”

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/ai-boom-stressing-grid-it-doesnt-have-be-way

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