xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, is being sued by the NAACP for using methane gas generators to power and cool its data centres without a permit.
The Mississippi data centres, named Colossus and Colossus II, are violating the Clean Air Act, according to the NAACP. They state:
A data center should not be a potential death sentence for a community’s health. By looking to evade clear air laws to operate dirty turbines that emit pollution and known carcinogens, these companies are following a shameful, familiar pattern: asking Black and frontline communities to bear the toxic brunt of ‘innovation’.
The shamelessness of xAI installing more generators than it has permits for reflects how many tech companies view government regulation: as something to be ignored or bought off.
See: NAACP lawsuit accuses Elon Musk’s xAI of polluting Black neighborhoods near Memphis at The Guardian.
Image: Deborah Lupton / Servers in a Landscape / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0.