Artificial madness

Sitting at a table with Jordan Peterson, a Canadian media psychologist, Elon Musk discusses in a recent interview one of his current projects, the Xia data center. Established since 2024 in Memphis, Tennessee (United States), the factory hosts Colossus, a supercomputer designed to develop Grok, artificial intelligence according to Musk. An unprecedented industrial challenge that could be put into service in less than twenty days.

The South African entrepreneur and billionaire cannot help but add: “We do this in a city, Memphis, which has the same name as that of the ancient Egyptian capital. Maybe that’s where a new God can be born…” To which, the psychologist responds, annoyed: “I would like to believe that what you just said was funny.” Let’s be clear: what the richest man in the world is up to is chilling. Some analysts speak of the emergence of a formal techno-fascism. Others point to Musk’s racist and conspiratorial ideology that oozes into his Grokipedia, the recent online encyclopedia he launched, powered by his super calculator.

The inhabitants of Memphis, for their part, are no longer even there: they are suffocating and falling ill due to the surrounding stale air, contaminated by emissions from the forty gas generators installed without a permit behind the mega-factory.