While electric cars gain presence in the automotive industry as an alternative to the combustion engine, the artificial intelligence that drives its autonomous systems relies on infrastructure that generates a difficult environmental impact to justify.
And an example of them is the XAI company, founded by Elon Musk, which a gas center of more than 400 megawatts in southern Memphis without the corresponding permits is operating without the corresponding permitsaccording to complaints of environmental organizations.
Its function is clear, which is to provide energy to a data center directly linked to the training of the Autopilot and the development of Grok, the artificial intelligence model that multimillionaire Musk wants to integrate into the Tesla ecosystem.
Colossus, the central without permits that is contaminating the environment
The central, known as Colossus, already has at least 33 of its 35 gas turbines runningaccording to thermal images collected by the Southern Environmental Law Center. This organization accuses XAI of violating the clean air law when operating without licenses and without adequate filtering systems.
It should be noted that the generated energy is intended to feed a growing data center, essential to train language models and autonomous driving systems. The installation is located in Botxtown, a neighborhood with a history of industrial pollution, which aggravates concern about its impact on public health.
It is important to mention that Tesla has built its reputation on the promise of more sustainable mobility, but this promise has nuances. Although electricity does not emit in circulation gases, the development of their associated technologies, such as Autopilot, depends on AI models that require large volumes of data and energy to train.
In this case, Electricity does not come from clean sources, but from natural gasa source that emits more than 450 grams of co₂ equivalent per kilowatt hour. Therefore, this situation is not a hypothetical case, but a specific infrastructure that is already operating and generating emissions in a specially vulnerable area.
The southern Memphis was identified in 2024 as the city with the highest incidence of asthma in the United States. To this is added a contamination history accumulated by decades of industrial activity. In that context, lifting a gas plant without controls or filters represents an additional risk to the health of its inhabitants.
Emissions include more than 2,000 tons per year of nitrogen, formaldehyde oxides and other compounds with recognized effects on the respiratory system. The community was not informed, or consulted, on the implementation of this project.
The XAI case is not isolated, since other great technological ones also face the same dilemma: how to feed the exponential growth of artificial intelligence without firing energy consumption. Training advanced models, such as those used by OpenAI, implies keeping servers by working at full performance for weeks or months.
In the end, Electric demand is pushing companies to look for quick solutionseven if that involves resorting to fossil sources. When there is not enough renewable energy available, what is activated are turbines such as Colossus.
Worst of all is that The problem is not just a technician, it is also a political. These facilities are usually located in areas with less institutional response capacity, as occurs in southern Memphis. What is presented as innovation, in many cases, ends up moving the environmental impact to communities that already drag a accumulated load of structural problems.
Elon Musk has not made statements about the Memphis plant, or about XAI’s role in his integration with Tesla. Nor has he responded to accusations about the lack of permits or the use of gas instead of clean sources.
However, what happens in Colossus reveals a reality that until now remained out of the focus: the development of artificial intelligence is not disconnected from its environmental footprint.
It is for this reason that electric cars may not emit gases on the road and do not contaminate as a gas or diesel car, but part of the technology that makes them operate is fed by burning fossil fuels, in facilities that nobody has officially authorized.
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Tags: Elon Musk