The Trump administration is trying to help Elon Musk’s XAI Corp. defeat a Clean Air Act lawsuit filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The US said the NAACP lawsuit threatens the xAI data center that powers essential Grok systems for the military.
The NAACP sued xAI and subsidiary MZX Tech in April, alleging they violated the Clean Air Act by operating 27 gas turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, without air permits. The NAACP said in a June 12 filing that by mid-May the number of unpermitted turbines had increased to 57 and there were plans to install two more.
“Defendants’ Colossus gas plant powers xAI’s nearby Colossus 2 data center, which in turn powers the chatbot ‘Grok,'” the lawsuit says. Gas turbines have sparked both health concerns and noise complaints.
Lawyers for the US Justice Department urged a federal judge to dismiss the case in a filing yesterday. The US filing said Mississippi’s Department of Environmental Quality determined the turbines did not require a permit.
Sue “Threatening.”[s] artificial-intelligence innovation, as well as the energy required to power it,” the US filing said. ”The NAACP’s effort to cut off the power that supports Grok also jeopardizes national security because … Grok provides critical support to the War Department’s military operations.” The US court filing said XAI’s Grok Gov model aided in targeted strikes in Iran during Operation Epic Fury.
According to an announcement from Cameron Stanley, the War Department’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, Grok was used with the Maven smart system to help U.S. forces “deploy more than 2,000 weapons to more than 2,000 targets within 96 hours during Operation Epic Fury, a testament to the vastly increased operational efficiency made possible by the Grok Gov model.” The GrokGov model has unique features not found in any other AI model, he wrote.
Group says US is helping xAI break laws
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), representing the NAACP in the case, said, “The US is arguing that XAI should be allowed to break the law just because the Trump administration says so.”
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