MEMPHIS, Tennessee — Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company is belching smog-forming pollution into an area of South Memphis that already leads the state in emergency department visits for asthma.

None of the 35 methane gas turbines that help power xAI’s massive supercomputer is equipped with pollution controls typically required by federal rules.

The company has no Clean Air Act permits.

    • TheLiveFive@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      And why Republicans have been working so hard to destroy the EPA, clean water act, etc.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    3 days ago

    I really want people to roll up on the factory, shoot the management, and then shut it down.

    This shit is a crime against the environment and humanity.

    • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      Even microscopic debris can completely destroy turbines and turbines often do not have filters for it creates a severe performamce penalty.

      Just saying… This doesn’t have anything to do with this story in fact I didn’t read it. I just like saying turbine facts.

      • T156@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        This is why there are so many stories about planes being grounded because someone tossed a coin in, according to superstition, or a nut or something fell into the compressor.

        The whole turbine has to be taken apart to get the coin or it might dent something, and the whole engine then does something most exciting when the pilot tries to run it up to service speeds, as a result of the imbalance.

    • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      conservatives almost never do that kind of activism, they dont like to ruffle the feathers.

    • cocolowlander@feddit.nl
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      2 days ago

      Not in Memphis, because that’s predominantly Black Americans.

      Usually the Southern Republican government grants permits for these types of polluting facilities in non-White communities.

    • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      “If you let me do this, I promise ai will invent a cure for asthma.”

      “We need fewer regulations and more money so we can bring about AI gods that will cure all diseases and fix climate change.”

      “We will boil the planet to the edge of survivability and at the last moment, a super intelligence will be born that knows how to fix it all and return our planet to normal.”

      • T156@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Ah, the technocratic solution. “We’re fine leaving things as-is, because someone will invent a thing to fix it soon”.