Justin Pearson, a Tennessee lawmaker, has become one of the loudest
voices amid a growing national backlash against the pollution and
politics of America's AI buildout.
MEMPHIS, Tennessee — When Justin Pearson sits at his desk, he looks at a polluted orange sky. It’s the backdrop of a haunting painting that hangs opposite an American flag in his home office. In the foreground, a figure wears a gas mask while reading the Bible and sitting on a stack of books that include George Orwell’s 1984 and W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk.
The painting tells the unseen story of this South Memphis neighborhood, with its windy roads dotted by modest, mostly one-story homes: Westwood is sandwiched between two of what have been Memphis’ biggest polluters, both of which are owned by the richest man in the world.
A 10-minute drive to the northwest is Elon Musk’s Colossus 1 data center. A 15 minute drive to the southeast is Colossus 2 and the army of 69 methane gas turbines located just over the state line in Mississippi that currently power the supercomputing hub — most without any of the pollution controls typically required by federal rules. Multiple environmental groups who are now suing xAI have estimated that the machines could emit more than 2,500 tons of smog-forming pollution annually into an area that already leads Tennessee in rates of emergency room visits for asthma.
Generative artificial intelligence wasn’t even widely publicly available back in 2021 when Pearson bought the painting. At the time, he was a community organizer hot off his first victory rallying locals against a crude oil pipeline that threatened to bisect Memphis’ underground drinking water source. The painting reminded him of what had been at stake in that fight, and how Black American history and the Good Book are balms for every struggle.
Now a Democratic representative to the state legislature campaigning to represent Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, Pearson says he fears the dystopian future of the painting “isn’t as far off as it seemed.”
“AI is controlled by people,” Pearson tells POLITICO Magazine, sitting in his home office in July. “Data centers are built by people. And those people and how they exist and operate in the world are a threat to humanity.”
The painting tells the unseen story of this South Memphis neighborhood, with its windy roads dotted by modest, mostly one-story homes: Westwood is sandwiched between two of what have been Memphis’ biggest polluters, both of which are owned by the richest man in the world.
A 10-minute drive to the northwest is Elon Musk’s Colossus 1 data center. A 15 minute drive to the southeast is Colossus 2 and the army of 69 methane gas turbines located just over the state line in Mississippi that currently power the supercomputing hub — most without any of the pollution controls typically required by federal rules. Multiple environmental groups who are now suing xAI have estimated that the machines could emit more than 2,500 tons of smog-forming pollution annually into an area that already leads Tennessee in rates of emergency room visits for asthma.
Generative artificial intelligence wasn’t even widely publicly available back in 2021 when Pearson bought the painting. At the time, he was a community organizer hot off his first victory rallying locals against a crude oil pipeline that threatened to bisect Memphis’ underground drinking water source. The painting reminded him of what had been at stake in that fight, and how Black American history and the Good Book are balms for every struggle.
Now a Democratic representative to the state legislature campaigning to represent Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, Pearson says he fears the dystopian future of the painting “isn’t as far off as it seemed.”
“AI is controlled by people,” Pearson tells POLITICO Magazine, sitting in his home office in July. “Data centers are built by people. And those people and how they exist and operate in the world are a threat to humanity.”
XAI’s Memphis-area data centers are two of thousands that have been built across the country in just the past few years in support of the nation’s burgeoning artificial intelligence industry. Four of the nation’s biggest technology companies are projected to spend some $670 billion this year alone building more facilities. It’s all part of a race to develop a technology that the CEOs of some of those same companies have said poses a “risk of extinction” to humans if it isn’t developed by the right people in America. But increasingly, Americans are less worried about a potential future threat from AI than the harm they say data centers are already causing their communities — sometimes right next door to their homes. Concerns about air pollution and water use top the reasons that seven out of 10 Americans now say they opposed the facilities coming to their area, according to a March Gallup Poll.
Watch: The Conversation
48:34
FCC chair Brendan Carr on Trump, free speech and his threats against broadcasters
XAI did not respond to requests for comment. But the company announced publicly Thursday it has reached an agreement with the State of Mississippi to remove the turbines that don’t have a Clean Air Act permit over the next year and to “ensure that all SpaceXAI mobile turbines are equipped with advanced emission control technologies.”
“We build our facilities rapidly while upholding the highest standards of operational responsibility, environmental stewardship, and community partnership,” the company writes. “SpaceXAI is committed to powering its supercomputers in ways that both reduce costs of energy for the American people and minimize the impact on surrounding communities.”
In just a few years, AI has been woven into nearly every facet of American society and the economy, including through internet searches, customer service chatbots and health care diagnostics — all of which need data centers to operate. Even so, local officials in states across the country, from Oklahoma to California and Michigan have faced recall petitions after supporting controversial projects. But those in favor of the data centers say the facilities are both necessary to solidify the nation’s geopolitical prowess and that the facilities can benefit local communities through increased tax revenue. President Donald Trump echoed that perspective earlier this month when he told potential data center opponents, “You can’t fight it, you have to go with it. ... If we don’t do this, we are going to be left behind. You have some communities that really want the data centers and frankly those are the smart communities.”
Watch: The Conversation
48:34
FCC chair Brendan Carr on Trump, free speech and his threats against broadcasters
XAI did not respond to requests for comment. But the company announced publicly Thursday it has reached an agreement with the State of Mississippi to remove the turbines that don’t have a Clean Air Act permit over the next year and to “ensure that all SpaceXAI mobile turbines are equipped with advanced emission control technologies.”
“We build our facilities rapidly while upholding the highest standards of operational responsibility, environmental stewardship, and community partnership,” the company writes. “SpaceXAI is committed to powering its supercomputers in ways that both reduce costs of energy for the American people and minimize the impact on surrounding communities.”
In just a few years, AI has been woven into nearly every facet of American society and the economy, including through internet searches, customer service chatbots and health care diagnostics — all of which need data centers to operate. Even so, local officials in states across the country, from Oklahoma to California and Michigan have faced recall petitions after supporting controversial projects. But those in favor of the data centers say the facilities are both necessary to solidify the nation’s geopolitical prowess and that the facilities can benefit local communities through increased tax revenue. President Donald Trump echoed that perspective earlier this month when he told potential data center opponents, “You can’t fight it, you have to go with it. ... If we don’t do this, we are going to be left behind. You have some communities that really want the data centers and frankly those are the smart communities.”
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