{"id":15741,"date":"2024-10-31T14:07:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T15:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=15741"},"modified":"2024-10-31T15:30:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T15:30:51","slug":"why-a-memphis-community-is-fighting-elon-musks-supercomputer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=15741","title":{"rendered":"Why a Memphis Community Is Fighting Elon Musk\u2019s Supercomputer"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Residents say Mr. Musk\u2019s data center for artificial intelligence is compounding their pollution burden and adding stress on the local electrical grid.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Elon Musk, the world\u2019s richest man, is building what he says will be the world\u2019s largest supercomputer. Its electricity needs will rival those of 100,000 homes.<\/p>\n

The supercomputer\u2019s neighbors in southwest Memphis have a problem with that.<\/p>\n

The project, part of Mr. Musk\u2019s xAI artificial intelligence business, sits in an old manufacturing plant on more than 550 acres. Before beginning operations there in July<\/a>, xAI rolled in flatbed trucks loaded with almost 20 mobile power plants, fueled by natural gas, to help meet its electricity demands.<\/p>\n

Residents of the heavily industrial community \u2014 already home to an oil refinery, a steel mill and chemical plants \u2014 see no upside. They contend that Mr. Musk\u2019s project has made pollution worse in an area already enveloped in smog.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting more and more days a year where it is unhealthy for us to go outside,\u201d said KeShaun Pearson, president of Memphis Community Against Pollution and a lifelong resident of the area near the xAI site.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
The xAI supercomputer center in Memphis is being built at the site of a former appliance factory.<\/span>Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
The center is to be used to train artificial intelligence models on thousands of powerful computer servers.<\/span>Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

So far, xAI is using the Memphis facility to develop its artificial intelligence models on a network of thousands of high-powered computer servers. Some of its models are trained on data from Mr. Musk’s social media platform, X.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents say Mr. Musk\u2019s data center for artificial intelligence is compounding their pollution burden and adding stress on the local electrical grid.Elon Musk, the world\u2019s richest man, is building what he says will be the world\u2019s largest supercomputer. Its electricity needs will rival those of 100,000 homes.The supercomputer\u2019s neighbors in southwest Memphis have a problem with that.The project, part of Mr. Musk\u2019s xAI artificial intelligence business, sits in an old manufacturing plant on more than 550 acres. Before beginning operations there in July, xAI rolled in flatbed trucks loaded with almost 20 mobile power plants, fueled by natural gas, to help meet its electricity demands.Residents of the heavily industrial community \u2014 already home to an oil refinery, a steel mill and chemical plants \u2014 see no upside. They contend that Mr. Musk\u2019s project has made pollution worse in an area already enveloped in smog.\u201cWe\u2019re getting more and more days a year where it is unhealthy for us to go outside,\u201d said KeShaun Pearson, president of Memphis Community Against Pollution and a lifelong resident of the area near the xAI site.The xAI supercomputer center in Memphis is being built at the site of a former appliance factory.Whitten Sabbatini for The New York TimesThe center is to be used to train artificial intelligence models on thousands of powerful computer servers.Whitten Sabbatini for The New York TimesSo far, xAI is using the Memphis facility to develop its artificial intelligence models on a network of thousands of high-powered computer servers. Some of its models are trained on data from Mr. Musk’s social media platform, X.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15743,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15741"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15744,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15741\/revisions\/15744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}