AI regulation debate reaches Memphis amid tech leaders’ call for slowdown - Action News 5
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Jacob Coxon, a former employee of AI company Anthropic, recently resigned and warned that artificial intelligence “could kill us all by the end of the decade” without guardrails and regulation, drawing attention from millions.
Since then, top AI tech company leaders have seemingly joined together to call for a slowdown in the AI race and for federal regulation.
The country’s leaders are not on board with that call.
Vice President JD Vance said, “I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them. It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse.”
President Donald Trump posted on X that he is the only guardrail needed and that there is a conspiracy against AI and data centers.
KeShaun Pearson, with Memphis Communities Against Pollution, said, “These threats are present, and the danger has been real.”
Data center regulation is at the forefront for activists in Memphis who say Elon Musk’s xAI Colossus supercomputers pose environmental dangers to the community.
Pearson agrees AI and data centers need regulation, but he questions the timing of the call by tech giants.
“We set the precedent. What Elon Musk is doing here is being replicated all across our nation, and it is not a coincidence in this moment when xAI is losing money, that the financial interests are tied to a financial slowdown,” Pearson said.
Pearson said Memphians were at risk with AI and data center growth two years ago when xAI moved into Memphis. He says the risks continue.
“These folks are more worried about the finances of AI than they are about the future that includes clean air, clean water for us all,” Pearson said.
He says data centers are dangerous and they are not being developed ethically.
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