The Early Word: Musk brings xAI to Memphis, eats challah French toast
How’s it going, Shelby County? It’s Thursday, June 6, National Drive-in Movie Day, which sounds like the perfect excuse to load up the car with snacks and hit up the Malco Summer Drive-in. Here’s what’s playing today.
Also, a note for my fellow runner friends: Registration for the St. Jude Marathon — scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 5 — is officially open. Who wants to run the full 26.2 with me? Let’s go!
Elon Musk’s artificial-intelligence startup, xAI, plans to build an AI supercomputer in the old Electrolux plant near T.O. Fuller State Park. The so-called “gigafactory of compute” will train Grok, xAI’s chatbot and rival to ChatGPT. Local leaders only had good things to say. But environmentalists had concerns about the facility’s emissions, local hiring and more. The facility could put a strain on the electric grid, and it’s expected to use a lot of water, so xAI could hasten the arrival of a gray water treatment plant.
In other Musk news, the self-proclaimed “techo-king” of Tesla tweeted that he ate challah French toast on a recent visit to Memphis, so we set out to learn where. And though there are a number of possibilities, it seems likely the bread came from one place.
Plus, University of Memphis tuition is going up, a Germantown triathlete is going to the Olympics and golfers play 99 holes at Overton.
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Bianca Phillips
Bianca Phillips is a Northeast Arkansas native and longtime Memphian who’s worked in local journalism and PR for more than 20 years. In her days as a reporter, she covered everything from local government and crime to LGBTQ issues and the arts. She’s the author of “Cookin Crunk: Eatin’ Vegan in the Dirty South,” a cookbook of vegan Southern recipes.
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