This story was published in partnership with Counterstream Media. ATLANTA — When he drives through his neighborhood now, Brian Page passes rows of police cars and AI‑powered cameras that track nearly every movement. For most of his life, Page, who goes by “Scapegoat Jones,” felt safest in the community that Atlanta officials have since flooded […]
artificial intelligence
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Politics & Policy
Residents Say Musk’s AI Supercomputer Is a ‘Death Sentence’ for Memphis Communities
The fight over who gets poisoned so Silicon Valley can train smarter chatbots has landed in federal court. The NAACP is suing Elon Musk’s xAI for allegedly skirting permits and running gas turbines that are spewing formaldehyde and smog‑forming pollution into Black communities already scoring failing grades for air quality. To keep its “Colossus” data […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Partner Content
Inside the Memphis Chamber of Commerce’s Push for Elon Musk’s xAI Data Center
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with MLK50. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. Marilyn Gooch was already skeptical about one of her newest neighbors, xAI’s supercomputing facility, when her cousin walked across the street in June with a blue mailer from the […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice, Politics & Policy
A Historic Black Community Takes On the World’s Richest Man Over Environmental Racism
Last summer, Elon Musk quietly transformed a portion of a South Memphis, Tennessee, community established by a group of formerly enslaved people in 1863 into what the world’s wealthiest man called “Colossus” — the planet’s most powerful supercomputer. The artificial intelligence venture turned an old manufacturing plant into a powerful 550-acre supercomputer designed to train […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Technology
America’s Digital Demand Threatens Black Communities with More Pollution
Ninety years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and South Carolina Gov. Ibra Blackwood worked together to bring electricity to rural South Carolina. But to build the power plant that would make it happen, they destroyed the homes of 900 Black sharecropping families. With them, 6,000 graves — including those of formerly enslaved people — were […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather, Technology
Crypto-Mining Creates New Environmental Injustices for Black Texans
Bitcoin is more than just a shiny new way to lose money. It’s also fueling Texas’ energy struggles as the state prepares for another year of record-breaking heat. And Black communities are caught in the crosswires of climate change, those booming data centers, and the power plants needed to meet both demands. Last year, during […]
Posted inHealth, Health Equity
When Algorithms and AI Perpetuate Medical Racism, Who’s Responsible?
When the coronavirus spread violently through the nation, disproportionately burdening Black communities, it was in some grim way the perfect reminder of why Dr. Noha Aboelata had founded her community clinic in East Oakland, California, more than a decade prior. In Alameda County, where she was located, Black folks were dying at a rate much […]
Posted inHealth
Could Artificial Intelligence Give Black Patients More Power in Medical Research?
Her cries ring out from behind the emergency room curtain where she’s laying. “She says she can’t breathe,” someone says in the background. Then, the voices blend together. “Just bear with us one second.” “There’s a crisis.” The video has gone viral on TikTok since its upload in 2021. The words, “This is what a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Facial Recognition Technology and False Arrests: Should Black People Worry?
Technological advancements such as location tracking and DNA testing over the past 20 years have contributed to law enforcement’s ability to close a criminal investigation. But their use of facial recognition software in recent years has resulted in the wrongful arrests of seven Black people — foreshadowing another potential form of racial discrimination in the […]
Posted inMoney, Partner Content, The Workplace
AI automated discrimination. Here’s how to spot it.
This story was produced in partnership with Vox as part of the discrimination issue of The Highlight. Say a computer and a human were pitted against each other in a battle for neutrality. Who do you think would win? Plenty of people would bet on the machine. But this is the wrong question. Humans created computers, and […]