The gas turbines run around the clock. Dozens of them, arrayed across a sprawling facility in southwest Memphis, burning natural gas to feed one of the most power-hungry artificial intelligence data centers in the country. The noise carries. So does the exhaust. For residents of the predominantly Black neighborhoods surrounding Elon Musk’s xAI data center — known internally as the “Colossus” — the arrival of the AI industry hasn’t meant jobs or opportunity. It’s meant headaches, nosebleeds, and a persistent chemical smell that seeps into homes and lingers. Now the NAACP is fighting back. The civil rights organization filed a federal lawsuit in late June 2025 against xAI Corp., alleging that the Memphis data center has been operating in violation of the Clean Air Act and constitutes a clear case of environmental racism. The complaint, filed in the U.S.…