A massive data center at xAI’s controversial site in Memphis, Tennessee is emitting huge plumes of pollution, according to footage recorded by an environmental watchdog group.
A massive data center at xAI’s controversial site in Memphis, Tennessee is emitting huge plumes of pollution, according to footage recorded by an environmental watchdog group.
The linked video is a bit unclear to me. The don’t explain the modes well. Mostly it seems to just show heat. According to the description it’s a Teledyne FLIR G620, which should be able to detect Methane and other VOCs. But it’s not clear to me how we are supposed to distinguish hot rising CO2 and H2O from any potentially leaking Methane, in those pictures.
Video in question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4prazMVylRs
That’s what I’m wondering as well, how do we differentiate cooling towers and the heat from those vs actual exhaust emissions…
It really does just look like heat dissipation from rooftop heat exchangers, not gasses out of an exhaust. I’m sure that building uses (and wastes) an ungodly amount of power, but I’d imagine it’s grid-tied, and therefore any noxious gases are being generated elsewhere (with the exception of on-site backup generators).
I’m all for telling AI to fuck off, but let’s at least have the facts straight.
They do actually burn gas locally, I wasn’t trying to dispute that part. It has become a political discussion in Memphis. Apparently they wanted to start operations on turbines before the grid access was ready.
I don’t know if they got the substation built, but last year they weren’t able to get enough power from the grid, so installed 14 generators (at 2.5mw each) to cover their needs
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/elon-musks-xai-data-center-adding-to-memphis-air-quality-problems-campaign-group/
Came here to also question this. “To the naked eye the pollution is not visible.” Is that because we’re just looking at heat in an IR camera? I know everybody hates Elon Musk but we also hate misinformation and love truth, right? I mean, cuz we are the good guys… riiiight?
Yea ngl that was my first question. This really does seem like it’s either grouping them together, or purely heat.