1mo ago

xAI Data Center Emits Plumes of Pollution, New Video Shows

www.desmog.com

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.

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This article and what they are doing feels fishy, for a few reasons.
Data centers usually have steam plumes, but only with older cooling systems, newer designs dont vent off nearly as much water vapor and even newer designs have liquid-to-chip, and im not sure how those vent the heat, but its definitly not venting their treated coolant+water. (Because that would be dumb and expensive, but that seems to be the flavor of the day, so lets roll with that)
If the building was not designed by a monkey, then this is likely just a generator test. I want to put the emphasis on "TEST" because a data center only runs its very inefficent generators when utility power fails. (They will generate exaust, but usually its diesle generators or something with cheap fuel). Fancy gas turbines sounds very "extra" because the reason that deisle generators are used is that they can turn on and hold the load of the building quickly (and the building should have a battery bank to hold that for exactly what ever that time is)
To me, one of two things is wrong, either the camera is just imaging thermals and thats a normal steam plume and they are being sensationalist. OR (and more likely answer). Musk is building some bespoke data center in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere without the local infrastructure to support it and is doing all sorts of expensive additions to make it do what it would be able to if it was clustered with other data centers that share utilitites.
- The article is not fishy, you are just uninformed. They are powering the datacenter with turbines fueled by natural gas. You are right about the datacenter though, it's beyond fishy, into crime territory. To top it all off, they have approval to run only a handful of turbines (after not even seeking approval in the first place, i.e. running them illegally), but they are running a ton of them.
  
  You misconstru uninformed for skeptical, an eco-themed news site will have a bias against anything related to data centers, supreme leader musk, or burning hydrocarbons. So apologies if I took the article with a grain of salt.
  
  One of the details that I spotted was that the images in the article show the FLIR logo, which is a type of equipment that one would use to view methane plumes, and was used to dramatic effect during the Aliso Canyon gas storage field leaks. That may not be a convincing detail on its own, but one that I thought suggested some credibility.
  
  We have similar products where I work as well, they are just expensive thermal imaging cameras. They would not be able to identify the chemical contents of a gas cloud at a distance, just that there was a cloud. The point is that in the age of digital media, its very hard to prove anything is what you say it is. Between photoshop and AI making a mess of the digital media landscape, it makes things increasingly difficult to validate, and shouting "do your own reaserch" will only add to the ambiguity as the internet is not static and can be changed by anyone at any time.
  
  uninformed for skeptical
  Perhaps one begets the other.
- We dont have to guess, it is literally powered by these generators because the local infrastructure cannot support it.
  
  this should be a highlighted comment or smth.
- being sensationalist. OR (and more likely answer). Musk is building some bespoke data center in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere without the local infrastructure to support it
  It's exactly what's been reporting in several pieces from 404 Media, and others. Namely xAI does NOT have the infrastructure BUT Musk has a history (Tesla, SpaceX, etc) of cutting corners. He "gets shit done" like no one else not because he's particularly smart or efficiency ... but because he breaks the law, as simple as that.
- You'e considering Memphis the middle of nowhere?
  
  Compared to the data center sprawl in other areas, yes. As others have pointed out, this appears to be a gross over-utilizarion of the local utilities and is just burning shit to make the building work where noone is paying attention to it.
  
  They aren't over-utilizing it though. They're supplementing with portable generators. Even if you've never been to Memphis, you can still look up the info to realize your argument is hyperbolic.

49 comments