This is part of our series about Technology and Climate Change. Read part 2 of the series, about Data Center Alley in Loudoun County, Virginia, here.
South Memphis’ Boxtown community has been fighting Elon Musk’s enormous artificial intelligence supercomputer facility for over six months. The project, which the world’s richest man set up at warp speed—in 19 or 122 days, depending on the brag—powers his artificial intelligence start up xAI. He needed the enormous facility, among other reasons, to power up to release Grok 3, which he claims will be the most powerful AI model “in the world,” later this year. All of this lofty language ignores his unwitting new neighbors. Boxtown residents have been inhaling the facility’s dangerous fumes since the project started in June—with no warning.
Locals say they weren’t aware of the multi-billion-dollar deal before it went ahead. Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper-Sutton found out about it along with the general public, watching the local news—a shock. In Memphis, usually “you have to have a public meeting for an ice cream shop!” says KeShaun Pearson, president of the Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP).
As a result, concerned community members have been scrambling to catch up and join forces. They’re now demanding local leaders take action, especially regarding potential environmental impact and health harms. “You’re using our water. Our power grid is being used to sustain your organization. And this is one of the largest projects to ever exist,” KeShaun says.
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Considerable community concerns
Long before xAI cropped up, Boxtown was already disproportionately impacted by industry pollution. The majority-Black area is home to an oil refinery, a steel mill, and chemical plants, and its residents have high rates of asthma, lower life expectancy, and four times the national rate of cancer—all health impacts that have been linked to industrial pollution. Code orange warnings for poor air quality as well as power and internet outages are not infrequent.
Considering this, “it was a disgrace how little—if any—community and neighborhood consultation occurred as this plan unfolded and launched with acceleration,” says Isabel González Whitaker, Memphis resident and Moms’ Associate Vice President for Public Engagement, adding, “this leaves a great sense of distrust in the neighborhoods directly impacted and also the city of Memphis.” Isabel imagines the city may now be wary of future tech and other industry “investments” that don’t demonstrate interest in “inviting voices to the table for shared stakeholder consensus and transparency around potential health harms to children.”
Environmental health impacts
While Musk’s xAI project has lacked transparency, it’s common knowledge that data centers, including digital AI facilities, have heavy environmental footprints as well as likely dangerous climate and health consequences. AI is a notorious energy suck; it relies on thousands of high-powered computers to ingest data that gobble upwards of 150 megawatts of computing power—10 times more electricity than web searches. Renewable energy can’t yet meet AI’s massively large needs for electricity, so currently about 60% of AI’s electricity sources come from burning fossil fuels. That’s a lot of air pollution—and demand on the local electricity grid.
To boost the power needed for the project and avoid outages, xAI is operating 15 gas combustion turbines permanently on the site. These emit hazardous chemicals, including formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, and exacerbate ground-level ozone. Particulate matter from the turbines can increase the risk of heart attacks, respiratory infections, asthma attacks, or death.
xAI also requires about a million gallons of water a day to run and keep the computers from overheating. This could rapidly dry up the local wellfield that provides drinking water to residents and potentially contaminate it with arsenic, according to the nonprofit Protect Our Aquifer. In a positive move last week, the Memphis City Council sold land to xAI to build a wastewater recycling plant to supply greywater for the supercomputer facility. But this will reduce the strain on the city aquifer by only 9%.
Community activism and AI
Community members, including KeShaun at MCAP, are fighting for transparency and have mobilized to, among other actions, request answers from the Greater Memphis Chamber, which handled the xAI deal. The speed and secrecy of the project means it flew below the radar and is not adhering to environmental rules. Community members have also been able to collectively push the local utility to find out how much electricity and water xAI will use.
Boxtown’s actions in the face of Musk may stand as a lesson to other business titans. “I hope other tech companies pay close attention to the ongoing backlash that happened here in Memphis and learn from it,” says Isabel. This is critical considering Lee Zeldin, newly minted Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has declared making the U.S. the “artificial intelligence capital of the world” one of his pillars.
It matters how communities and corporations go about reaching this stated goal, says KeShaun. “We’re on the side of ethical progress and the side of justice. We have to do this in a way that is healthy for our planet and healthy for our people. There’s no other way to move forward,” he says. Without community input, “it just fortifies sacrifice zones and reiterates the fact that some people aren’t worth saving—and some people’s lives and livelihoods and their land—so that we have Siri.”
The power of community action
Residents in areas slated for AI projects can also learn from Boxtown’s action. “I hope that people take notice on a national scale so as to be aware of permitting processes and build-out processes to prepare themselves accordingly, for example, through civic engagement actions that will ensure their voices are heard,” says Isabel. Organizing, sharing information, and advocacy works. KeShaun’s organization petitioned the Biden White House in a fight to stop another local facility from emitting known carcinogens in the air and won. “We’ve done it before, and we can do it again. We’re just up against the most powerful people on the planet right now, but that’s no reason to give up.”