Elon Musk's artificial intelligence model stirs pollution controversy in Memphis

DW (English)

Elon Musk's xAI plans to launch a powerful artificial intelligence model stirs controversy. Not only is it backed by Donald Trump, it's also said to worsen air quality in Memphis with a gas-powered new data center.

Transcript

00:00Nestled at the banks of the mighty Mississippi in southwest Tennessee, Memphis.

00:08Perhaps best known around the world because of this guy, the king of rock and roll.

00:13Elvis Presley lived here and is arguably still alive, somewhat.

00:18Graceland, his estate, still attracts more than at least half a million visitors every

00:23year.

00:24However, Memphis has not just Elvis.

00:30The city of roughly one million citizens is, for example, also home to global logistics

00:35behemoth Federal Express, or in short FedEx.

00:39The airport of Memphis, thanks to FedEx, is one of the busiest cargo hubs in the world,

00:45only second to Hong Kong.

00:48So far so good, but of course Memphis has its sight on more growth and wealth.

00:53It is ambitiously set on creating a diverse, future-proof business landscape.

00:58That's where high tech comes in, and in this case, Elon Musk and his relatively new company

01:04XAI.

01:07For me, and I believe for the city of Memphis and the surrounding area, one of the big advantages

01:13of having the Musk supercomputer here is to bring more prominence to the area as a technology

01:21hub.

01:22Elon Musk's investment here counts massively for Memphis and is truly astonishing.

01:28Or perhaps not.

01:29That depends on how one looks at it.

01:32Musk founded his latest artificial intelligence startup XAI in March 2023.

01:38He promised to release, quote, the most powerful AI in the world, end quote, by December 2024.

01:46The AI model is called GROK3 and its training would happen at a new massive data-slash-training

01:53center in Memphis, Musk announced.

01:58And here it is.

01:59In an industrial section of Memphis in the southern part of town, it is this facility

02:04that is supposed to supply the compute power for its artificial intelligence company XAI.

02:10And with that, the brains, arms and legs for GROK3.

02:16That takes a lot of computing power to do right.

02:20There's a lot of competition in the generative AI space.

02:23Each company is trying to outdo the other.

02:26And as they add more and more features to the generative AI, it requires more and more

02:32computing power.

02:34And AI requires more electricity to complete even simple tasks compared to a typical search

02:40queries.

02:41The electricity must come from somewhere.

02:43It must be produced.

02:45And here's the hiccup.

02:47In the US, about 60% of that electricity comes from burning fossil fuels, which is the primary

02:53driver of climate change.

02:56Hello.

02:57We're meeting Yolanda Cooper-Sutton at a local coffee shop.

03:00She is the city councilwoman representing the district in which Musk built his data

03:05center.

03:06I serve some of the poorest districts here in Memphis.

03:10And when I say the poorest, mostly brown, indigenous, people of color is who I serve.

03:20Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton is anything but happy about how Memphis and Musk found each

03:25other.

03:26The process of how Musk's XAI facility in Memphis came to pass has been shady, she says.

03:32The facility was hastily approved, almost secretly, and then built in just a few months.

03:38The process and how this business transaction took place was without the knowledge of myself

03:47and other councilmembers.

03:50I found out on the news, sitting in my living room, in my recliner.

03:57The councilwoman wasn't the only one left in the dark about the new XAI facility.

04:03Communities neighboring the data center were given no information either.

04:08We're not saying that we didn't want the business or the business shouldn't be here.

04:12But what you did was you left the people out that lives in this city.

04:18Cooper-Sutton largely blames the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce for that.

04:23And she's not alone.

04:25A group of representatives and activists of various local environmental and community

04:30engagement organizations has invited media to a press conference in one of the small

04:34parks in downtown Memphis.

04:36Their list of grievances is long and diverse.

04:40There is the water issue.

04:42The local utility company Memphis Light, Gas and Water, or MLGW, says the moment Musk's

04:48supercomputer gets to full capacity, it's going to need one million gallons of water

04:54per day for cooling.

04:56Memphis drinking water comes from an aquifer, an ancient lake underground.

05:01Taking it from the aquifer is problematic.

05:04Water is life.

05:06Business is an absolutely critical resource that everything needs for survival.

05:11Industries do need water for their process.

05:14Businesses do need water to make their revenue, but that should never be put in front of the

05:19drinking water needs of residents.

05:21Another major grievance, air pollution, which in this case has to do with the data center's

05:25need for a vast amount of electricity.

05:28At full capacity, Musk's facility needs 150 megawatts of electricity.

05:34That's enough to power 100,000 plus homes per year.

05:38But already, even if not yet at full compute power, XAI uses 18 methane gas turbines to

05:44produce enough power for the complex.

05:48Gas powered aeroderivative turbines mounted on trailers that are spewing climate changing

05:56emissions into this community's air right now.

06:02Air that was already regularly exceeding the EPA's attainment guidelines for ozone

06:09on an almost everyday basis this summer.

06:12And this without any environmental impact statement or even a permit due to the legal

06:20loophole that they're on trailers and they're only temporary.

06:25But actually they could be run 364 days a year.

06:30And finally, there is the equity and equality issue framing all other problems these groups

06:35have with Musk's presence in Memphis and with the city's Chamber of Commerce conduct securing

06:41his investment here in the first place.

06:45Community activist Kishan Pearson takes us to the industrial area that now houses XAI.

06:51The new facility is neighboring Boxtown, a small, dominantly African-American community

06:57that was established by enslaved people in 1863.

07:01The residents of Boxtown and other small communities in the area continue to miss out on any benefits

07:08whatsoever from Musk's investment next door.

07:11We've seen it played over and over and over again.

07:13It's the same playbook.

07:14And so for us, what is the material economic benefit?

07:18What's the material environmental benefit of this organization being here?

07:23What's crazy about this situation in particular or what stands out is the fact that the leadership

07:30of this organization is a proponent, quote unquote, of environmentalism, yet you are

07:36powering this facility using dirty gas that's continuing to suffocate us.

07:42Every other day or so, Kishan is in Boxtown and goes from house to house and door to door,

07:47reaching out to its residents about the whole Elon Musk situation just a stone's throw away

07:51from their neighborhood.

07:53He admits that his organization and the other groups are facing a David versus Goliath fight,

08:00but he refuses to give up.

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