WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK: When xAI announced it was building its supercomputer in Memphis and bringing with it jobs and tax revenue, few could have known the number of controversies to follow. With us again to talk about the ongoing saga of Colossus, Grok, MLGW, Elon Musk, and Hitler is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. That's a lot to chew on, but I appreciate you having me.
BLANK: I hope we can get to some of it. Otis, a company spokesperson, Brent Mayo, made a rare public appearance at a Rotary Club meeting on Tuesday. I know that you went. What was your biggest concern?
SANFORD: The biggest concern I have is what this chatbot is spewing out in relation to racism, antisemitism, hate... We have to talk about the broader societal issue here of this AI being a part of hate speech and division in our society.
BLANK: Right, Elon Musk has always touted political incorrectness as a feature of Grok. But the chatbot started annoying some conservatives because many of its responses were center-left. And then Musk recently said he had started tweaking the programming. And then by Tuesday this week, Grok was pointing out Jewish-sounding surnames. It was calling itself "MechaHitler." Obviously, xAI is a private company. Memphis has no PILOT incentives to leverage. We have no control over what kind of hate speech it might generate from our city. But how do we as locals make some sort of principled stance against a company that is run by a man who who we've seen make Nazi salutes in public.
SANFORD: Well, we just have to speak out against it, Chris, as I have done, and say that this is not acceptable. And it should be people such as the mayor, Paul Young, and people at the Chamber, and people at MLGW, and political leaders. They should be speaking out against this, as well. Whether you support xAI being in Memphis or not, we should not be supportive of the kind of hate that I saw. And as I think you mentioned, that was actually put into the chatbot. It can't put out any more than what it was designed for in the first place.
BLANK: Obviously, the environmental impact of this supercomputer was something that nobody really expected when it first was built here. Let's start with the millions of gallons of water needed to cool it. Did Brent Mayo in his talk address what the company is doing about the water issue?
SANFORD: Well, he did say that one reason why he was a little late coming to the meeting was that he had been at a groundbreaking for the groundwater site which is using recycled water to cool the apparatus. And so he did address that. If the company is going to be here, and it looks like it is, I am supportive of anything that protects the aquifer. I'm also supportive of any effort to not be a drain on our electric grid.
BLANK: Electricity needs have caused the most concern. Originally, it was about straining the power grid, so the company brought in its own power generators. But those use natural gas and that means air pollution. Now, the South Memphis community that they are in, they want to sue the company for that pollution. Are political and business leaders who have shown support for xAI, like Mayor Paul Young and the Memphis Chamber, are they taking the community's concerns seriously?
SANFORD: Well, honestly, I don't think they're taking them seriously enough. I'm not saying they are totally ignoring them.
I mean, obviously, Mayor Young is touting using the tax revenue from xAI and putting it directly back into that community, at least 25% of it. So, they are not totally ignoring the community. But the community doesn't think it's enough. They don't think that the concern over the pollution is being addressed satisfactorily. There's room for improvement with the political leadership, the business leadership where the community is concerned.
BLANK: Are you surprised that we've had this much problems with a computer? You know, it's not a power plant, it's not an oil refinery, it's a computer. I mean, who would have known that this many controversies have stemmed from this thing?
SANFORD: I guess I'm not surprised in that we're not talking about just an ordinary computer here. This is something that is revolutionizing how we operate as a society in terms of information and data and there are a lot of tentacles around this that involves the environment, involves the air and the water and all of the things that we need to live our lives. And then it involves what I talked about at the very beginning, which is: how are we going to exist as a society that gets along with each other? All the things that are divisive in our society, they can either help or hurt, and right now I don't see them helping at all.
