How the Growth of AI is Endangering the Health of Black People

Data centers, like the one built by Elon Musk in Memphis, are creating a toxic environment that is disproportionately affecting Black communities.

(Screenshot NBC News via YouTube)

A battle is brewing across the country involving AI technology, the environment and the health and well-being of Black people. As demand for AI technology grows, tech companies are building large data centers to power and operate their AI products. And these data centers — powered primarily by fossil fuels that pollute the environment with toxic chemicals — are being built disproportionately in Black neighborhoods with long histories of health problems stemming from environmental racism.

In Memphis, Elon Musk has built Colossus, the world’s largest supercomputer data center to power his xAI company and its Grok chatbot, which is featured on his X (formerly known as Twitter) social media platform. Activists say the center is a major polluter in Southwest Memphis, with toxic emissions hitting the predominantly Black community of Boxtown.

The NAACP is calling for a shutdown of the facility, which operates at least 35 gas-powered turbines without the required permits and is ignoring EPA air quality standards. The NAACP says the turbines can emit 1,200 to 2,000 tons of nitrogen oxide per year and emit pollutants that cause cancer and increase the risk for asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

Memphis is ground zero for this racial violence coming in the form of toxic smokestacks. But environmental racism in Black neighborhoods is nothing new. In fact, this area of Memphis, where the AI facility is located, has 17 other polluting facilities, including an oil refinery, a steel plant and a gas-fired power plant. Memphis has some of the worst air pollution in the region, and Black folks have higher rates of asthma and a cancer risk that is four times the national average.

Generative AI has real consequences for the environment, according to MIT, as these AI centers “demand a staggering amount of electricity, which leads to increased carbon dioxide emissions and pressures on the electric grid.” These centers also require large amounts of water to cool their hardware, which depletes local water supplies and disrupts ecosystems.

On a related note, Trump and his people hate climate regulations, and the EPA wants to make the United States “the AI Capital of the World.” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin plans to allow power plants to emit pollution without limits based on the false claim that they do not “significantly” contribute to climate change.

And the “big, beautiful bill” that passed the U.S. House of Representatives includes a 10-year moratorium on states regulating AI technology (the bill is now being debated in the Senate). Considering the threat of climate change and the disproportionate pain these data centers will inflict upon poor, marginalized and melanated people, this is a recipe for disaster.

While Elon Musk’s Colossus is receiving much of the recent attention around data centers and accusations of environmental racism, this issue is bigger than Musk. The tech industry spent $455 billion in data centers globally last year, with behemoths such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google planning multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure projects. Data centers are expected to account for 12% of the country’s energy use by 2028.