A new industrial facility was recently built in South Memphis, Tennessee, in just 122 days. Apparently, it was designed to generate electricity to power Elon Musk’s xAI startup Grok neural network.

Earlier in the summer, journalists learned of Musk’s goal to create a “gigacomputer” he calls Colossus. The system has already begun training AI using 100,000 liquid-cooled Nvidia H100 GPUs, making it the most powerful AI training system in the world. In the coming months, xAI plans to install another 100,000 processors on the supercomputer.

Musk needs the supercomputer to create a powerful artificial intelligence (AGI) that can perform tasks using human-like cognitive abilities despite its lack of basic knowledge.

But productive AI tools like Grok consume a lot of energy. Musk’s supercomputer is powered in part by 18 methane gas generators, according to NPR, and the billionaire hasn’t been licensed to use any of them.

Even though residents already have a disproportionately high rate of cancer and a much lower life expectancy than neighboring areas, these gas generators are already belching smoke into the air.

The city of Memphis, which was aware of the plant’s construction, signed a confidentiality agreement. This means that the plant was not only built in a vacuum, but also without the involvement or even knowledge of community members who would face the environmental consequences. Despite being an advanced technology, AI has been imposing the same pollution burden on society as other industries for the past 100 years.