Locals overwhelmed with Elon Musk's makeshift AI power plant: 'Treating our neighbors as a sacrifice zone'

The noise started without warning, but soon everyone was paying attention. 

According to NBC News, locals are dealing with the fallout of Elon Musk's artificial intelligence ambitions after xAI set up shop in Southaven, Mississippi.

What's happening?

Southaven residents have said that xAI is disrupting life in their normally peaceful community with incessant noise and air pollution — and things happened so quickly they couldn't fight back. Now, they fear that promises of new jobs and tax revenue won't outweigh the costs. 

"The scale, the speed, the intensity of this expansion are unlike anything this area has absorbed," Southaven native Nathan Reed said, per NBC News. "This was not a thoughtful, phased development. It was an industrial surge imposed on our residential community."

Eddie Gossett, 76, added that he woke up one day to a sound reminiscent of a jet engine's roar, but there's no airport runway near his rural home. Ultimately, he realized the sound was emanating from xAI's makeshift power plant consisting of 18 methane gas turbines. 

"I intended to die right here," he said. "Hell I couldn't give my house away with all this noise."

Why is this important?

Tech companies are pouring billions of dollars into AI development and have said their tools can save lives, improve workflows, and optimize the energy grid. 

While that may be true, cities like Southaven are left footing the bill in the form of noise, air and water pollution, and surging electricity costs.

At a hearing, Robert James, president of the Mississippi State Conference NAACP, accused xAI of operating its turbines without a permit, per NBC News.   

"Mississippi has a long and powerful history of making decisions intensifying environment harms of Black and low-income communities, treating our neighbors as a sacrifice zone," James said. 

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A similar battle is underway in Tennessee, where residents of the predominantly Black community of Boxtown have said Musk's xAI is taking advantage of a loophole to run turbines without permits or pollution controls, worsening air quality in an already highly polluted area and exacerbating respiratory conditions like asthma.  

What's being done about xAI's turbines?

Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite suggested on Facebook that much of the backlash was politically motivated, according to NBC News, but he acknowledged the noise was a problem. In an email to the network, he said that xAI's permanent turbines would be quieter. 

In the meantime, xAI erected a $7 million sound wall to soften the noise. 

However, local Taylor Logsdon said the barrier is ineffective. 

"We make fun of it," Logsdon told NBC News, referring to it as the "Temu" of sound walls — in reference to the retailer known for low-quality products. Additionally, xAI's permanent turbines will rely on gas rather than a non-polluting energy source.

For residents like Logsdon, whose children have recently developed respiratory problems, and Gossett, who is regularly awakened by noise in the middle of the night, this isn't about politics. In fact, public opposition to data center development has been strikingly bipartisan.

"You need to come over and stay at my house for a week," Gossett challenged the xAI founder.

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