Elon Musk's AI company has caught the attention of environmentalists in Memphis, Tennessee for reportedly operating gas turbines without a permit.

On Monday, environmentalist groups Memphis Community Against Pollution, Young, Gifted & Green, Sierra Club Chickasaw Group, and Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter sent a letter to the Shelby County Health Department calling for an investigation of the xAI data center, which powers the X chatbot Grok.

The environmental cost of supercomputers like xAI

According to the letter, xAI has installed at least 18 gas combustion turbines, which "have the capacity to emit about 130 tons of the ozone-precursor nitrogen oxides (NOx) per year." The groups allege that the xAI data center, which may be contributing to Memphis' existing smog problem, "has not applied for any air permits for these turbines."

The vast amount of electricity and computing power required to run AI models is an emissions nightmare. According to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), electricity consumption of data centers is projected to double by 2026, which would roughly equate to the entire electricity consumption of Japan. And that's not counting the amount of water required to cool the servers and e-waste.

With supercomputers using up the same amount of energy as a small country, it's easy to see the global environmental impact, let alone the immediate vicinity of a data center like Memphis.

The letter, which says xAI's data centers violate Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) smog standards, calls for an investigation by the local county health department. Moreover, the letter requests that the data center cease operations until a permit is obtained.