DOJ invokes national security to defend xAI's unpermitted gas turbines in NAACP lawsuit

The US Justice Department invoked national security to defend xAI's unpermitted gas turbines, arguing that shutting them down would harm AI innovation supporting military operations. The NAACP sued over emissions from the Colossus 2 facility, where nitrogen oxide emissions spiked 111% as turbines grew from 27 to 57.

DOJ invokes national security to defend xAI's unpermitted gas turbines in NAACP lawsuit US Justice Department calls xAI's chatbot Grok essential to military operations, defending its controversial gas turbines. In a filing to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the NAACP, the Department of Justice argues that the suit "threatens American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial-intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War's military operations." According to a statement by Cameron Stanley, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer at the Department of Defense, Grok is one of just four AI models that "support mission-critical operations across Secret and Top-Secret classified networks" - including recent strikes against Iran https://the-decoder.com/u-s-military-strikes-3000-targets-in-iran-with-ai-support-but-oversight-remains-underinvested/ . The NAACP filed suit because xAI, which is part of SpaceX, runs unpermitted gas turbines at its Colossus 2 facility in Southaven, Mississippi. According to the Southern Environmental Law Center, the number of turbines has grown from 27 to 57 https://the-decoder.com/spacex-ipo-filing-shows-billions-in-ai-losses-a-2-trillion-valuation-target-and-turbine-spending-that-signals-more-data-center-conflicts-ahead/ since April, driving a 111 percent spike in nitrogen oxide emissions. Beyond Colossus 2, Elon Musk's company operates just one other major data center. AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans Subscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive "AI Radar" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section. Subscribe now WSJ https://www.wsj.com/business/spacex-agrees-to-buy-ai-coding-agent-cursor-for-60-billion-7a473340