Musk Tries To Bribe Memphis So They'll Overlook His AI Data Centers Are Killing Black Toddlers

So I just got done writing about how Elon Musk's xAI data centers outside of Memphis feature 57 largely-unregulated gas turbines pumping pollutants and toxic chemicals into black neighborhoods that already see disproportionate levels of pollution-triggered illnesses among local minority children.

This synopsis was from a recent lawsuit by civil rights groups pointing out Musk's Colossus 2 AI data center is openly violating the Clean Air Act:

xAI’s power plant in Southaven has the potential to emit more than 1,700 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) each year. The staggering emissions numbers likely make the facility the largest industrial source of NOx in the greater Memphis area, an area already failing to meet national smog standards. The illegal turbines also have the potential to release up to 180 tons of fine particulate matter, 500 tons of carbon monoxide, and 19 tons of formaldehyde—a toxic, cancer-causing chemical—each year. 

The data center is also having a negative impact on the local water supply, something Musk said he'd address by building a next-gen water recycling system that he just...never bothered to follow through on. And because U.S. regulators have been gutted by corruption, there's no accountability anywhere in sight.

Very innovative stuff!

To try and scuttle the lawsuit, Musk then had the federal government (he recently purchased) intervene; the Trump DOJ claimed in a filing that it was essential that Elon Musk's AI data centers disproportionately kill minorities because the government's use of Musk's fifth-place chatbot is a matter of national security.

While they wait to see if that gambit works, Musk Corp has cooked up another idea to try and quell some of the backlash – they've decided to give Memphis residents steep discounts to Musk-owned Starlink broadband service in the hopes that placates them:

"Customers that opt in will be able to access Starlink service plans for half the monthly price, which can range from $55 to $130 per month. The discount can be shared with friends and family. New users won’t have upfront hardware costs, according to a company statement."

It's effectively a bribe from one of Musk's companies to try and get locals to back off criticism of another of his companies, which are both part of Musk's recent IPO, an even broader con designed to defraud investors with hyper-inflated valuations and vaporware bullshit. All now tethered to your 401k.

What an exciting time to be alive.

One irony is that Starlink doesn't even work well in congested urban areas, making this "deal" of dubious value to Memphis locals. Studies from my friend Sascha Meinrath at Penn State have found that Starlink is too congested to meaningfully scale in a way that's useful for dense urban environments.

Starlink is useful as a way to bring internet access to remote locations and boats, but it's historically been too expensive to be of use to communities that need affordable access at real scale. As the subscriber base grows, Starlink has had to resort to "congestion surcharges" as high as $1500 to deter people from using it.

And because Starlink (like most Musk companies) doesn't invest in meaningful customer service, people who try to complain basically fall into a black hole (check out this Reddit thread).

Last week I wrote a feature for The Verge exploring how Trump helped Musk hijack billions in taxpayer dollars included in the infrastructure bill for better broadband, which redirected billions away from better, faster, cheaper fiber options, and toward Musk's congested satellite broadband venture.

My colleague Sean Gonsalves and I spoke to low-income minority communities in Louisiana who say they were just on the cusp of getting super cheap next-generation fiber optic broadband thanks to the 2021 infrastructure bill, only to have Trump and Musk strip it away and shovel them off to Starlink:

“The most frustrating part is that it was a zero dollar investment in infrastructure,” Nathanael Wills of Delta Interfaith told The Verge. “Nothing fundamentally changed. People with Starlink are going to just get mailed a box and many won’t be able to install it. And we still won’t have anybody really served,” leaving the community with “no growth in our economic potential.”

“No money will stay here,” he said. “No jobs will be created from this — no installation jobs, zero construction jobs, or even any small stimulus.”

If you squint, tilt your head, and look at things just so – you should start to see how Musk's white supremacist dipshittery routinely "informs" major business decisions in ways that have very real-world negative impacts on just the sorts of people a racist South African nepo baby doesn't like.

Folks in the Trump orbit think Starlink is akin to magic pixie dust. But what do you think happens when millions of government-subsidized users suddenly flock to an already congested network that's been overhyped? Nothing good. You'll be seeing a lot of complaints about this sort of thing over the next year or two.

So when I see people shocked or surprised at the width and depth of the backlash to AI, my first impulse is to wonder what planet they've been living on. Saying you don't understand what the fuss is about or that you "can't have a real conversation" with AI critics is a loud advertisement for your privilege and political ignorance.

Meanwhile, I keep coming back to the fact that the biggest problem with AI – or modern software automation – continues to be the terrible people in charge of its implementation and trajectory. These are simply not good human beings, and the tools they create directly reflect it.

Elon Musk is an opportunistic white supremacist huckster who cozies up to innovators and engineers, then takes singular credit for their work. He was propped up for fifteen years by a lazy press that gleefully mythologized him as a supergenius engineer, when he's just an unremarkable, racist slob.