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The Department of Justice intervened on a charge on xAI gas power on Monday. In the filing, the agency agreed Elon Musk’s companysaying that trying to stop xAI from running gas turbines “threatens America’s national security, economy, and energy by trying to shut down the artificial intelligence infrastructure that supports the War Department’s military operations.”
The DOJ, along with xAI and the state of Mississippi, asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed by the NAACP in April.
The NAACP claims that xAI is not in compliance with the Clean Air Act and is endangering public health by operating an illegal gas turbine at the site of its second data center in Southaven, Mississippi, called Colossus 2. In May, the NAACP filed a request for a preliminary injunction to stop xAI from operating a power plant that “continues to use the risk of asthma without the use of turbines” for heart disease” in areas that already have disease. highly contaminated property.
xAI and the DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the DOJ memorandum, there are only four examples of artificial intelligenceincluding Grok, to “support the most important tasks of the secret and Top-Secret groups.” Another announcement made by Cameron Stanley, director of digital and intelligence intelligence at the Department of Defense, explains how the military relies on the Grok Gov model “to support critical national security operations.” This includes using this model as part of the latest action against Iran. Forcing xAI to stop operating the Colossus 2 fuel turbines, Stanley says, “directly threatens national security interests.”
xAI-which is part of SpaceX– shot to national prominence in 2024 when residents of southwest Memphis began to raise awareness that the company had begun operating an illegal gas plant at its first data center. The Memphis area has one of the highest asthma rates in the country, and residents are concerned about further pollution from illegal turbines. State agencies in Tennessee and Mississippi said the company has been operating turbines for a year without clean air permits—claims that, the NAACP contends, are inconsistent with Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
The original lawsuit filed by the NAACP identified 27 turbines operating without a permit on its property in Southaven. But emails between xAI and state officials obtained by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), a partner in the NAACP’s lawsuit, show that as of mid-May, there were 57 turbines operating without permits at the Colossus 2 site. Most of the turbines, the emails show, were added weeks after the NAACP filed its lawsuit.
The expansion of Colossus 2’s turbines from 27 to 57 means, according to SELC, that the site has seen a 111 percent increase in nitrogen oxide emissions, an 83 percent increase in PM2.5 emissions, and an 88 percent increase in formaldehyde emissions since April.
