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Elon Musk’s supercomputer has faced calls for it to be immediately shut down after there have been warnings of the severe health impacts being experienced by locals.
This comes as the NAACP, which is a civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial effort to advance justice for African Americans, becomes the latest body to speak about the situation.
Musk’s ‘Colossus’ has been reported as being the largest supercomputer in the world and is based in the center of Memphis, Tennessee.
Developed by Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, the computer is used to train the Grok chatbot as well as support other businesses owned by the billionaire, including SpaceX.
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The facility in which it is housed is in a repurposed Electrolux factory where it is operated using dozens of gas turbines.
The NAACP has now spoken out to argue that Colossus is lacking in regulation and is harmful to the environment, adding that AI’s ‘data centers and the plants that power them typically burn fuels that emit hazardous chemicals that cause cancer and other health issues into the air the local community breathes’.
The group went on to say: “Elon Musk and his company xAI are poisoning Black communities in TN and MS, just to make more money. While it's not new that data centers threaten to erode our climate progress, xAI's disregard for laws and regulations meant to keep people safe from pollution is unprecedented.
“Tech companies and the billionaires who own them must be held accountable. As the country continues to progress in AI, we must ensure that frontline communities aren't the ones paying the price.”
The NAACP also shared that Musk built his first xAI data center near the historically Black Boxtown, Tennessee, in June 2024 ‘where he installed 35 unpermitted gas turbines to power the facility and avoid purchasing power from the local utility company’.
The organization added: “These gas-burning turbines release toxic chemicals that create smog and cancer-causing pollutants. Since xAI's data center opened, nearby air pollution monitors in Memphis have reported harmful levels of smog in the air.”
The NAACP isn’t the only one speaking out about this as Tennessee State Representative Justin Pearson has also voiced his own thoughts on the matter.
He said: “It’s an actual gas plant in the middle of a neighborhood and you don’t need any permitting? Something has failed drastically and significantly with our system of checks and balances.”
He added: “If you look at where these data centers are propping up, it’s always in poor communities.”
