ai companies should answer for today - five years out (music video)

Down in Southaven, Mississippi, dozens of gas turbines power xAI's Colossus 2 data centre, right beside people's homes, running without an air permit (Mississippi allows that for up to a year). This is a song about the thrill of the AI race, and how that rush gets used as the reason to skip what's happening right now. And people are fighting back, and winning some of it. Local groups opposing data centres more than doubled in early 2026. Texas and New York paused permits. The EPA closed the loophole for turbines on trailers. More than 10,000 neighbours took xAI to court. 0:00 New model just dropped 0:34 Five years out 1:04 No permit for the power 1:25 Paradise or doom 1:54 The present's getting blurry 2:26 No. Not anyway. 2:43 Pay your way 3:02 Answer for today SOURCES, in order of appearance Elon Musk, September 2024 (Colossus, built in 122 days: the company's own claim) Epoch AI (the growth of training compute) Mississippi Today, 11 May 2026 Southern Environmental Law Center, 15 January 2026 Mississippi Free Press, 25 September 2026 (the neighbours' class action, and xAI's buyout offer letter) Hoes and Gilardi, PNAS, April 2025 Data Center Watch, Q1 2026 Office of the Texas Governor, 21 September 2026 New York Executive Order 62, Governor Kathy Hochul, 14 July 2026 EPA rule, January 2026 (CNBC, 16 January 2026); the agreed order with Mississippi regulators (Gizmodo) NAACP v. xAI, 14 April 2026 The states' suits against OpenAI: Florida, 1 June 2026; eight more states, 14 October 2026 LYRICS New model just dropped! (Faster!) Wake up, there's a new one, and it can drive my computer now. It did a day of work by lunch, and I still don't know how! They built a colossus in a hundred twenty-two days; four, five times the compute a year, and the line goes up and away! Down in Mississippi there's a hum that never ends. Anyway! (Anyway!) Did you see the scores? Tell your friends! Faster! (Faster!) Is it takeoff? Is it foom? Heaven or the end of the world, I don't mind, just make it soon! Five years out! (Five years out!) Every illness cured, a genius in your phone, five years out! Paradise or doom, and I've got the best seat in the room, and I can't look away! (Can't look away!) The rules can wait, the companies say; it's a race, we'll write some later, maybe. No permit for the power? Put the turbines on a trailer, baby! I check my p(doom) like a horoscope, and I don't miss a day; no time for the small stuff when the big one's on its way! Next door, there's high-pitched squealing, engines roaring, rumbling low. Anyway! (Anyway!) The next one's out, and it's ready to go! Faster! (Faster!) Is it takeoff? Is it foom? Heaven or the end of the world, I don't mind, just make it soon! Five years out! (Five years out!) Every illness cured, a genius in your phone, five years out! Paradise or doom, and I've got the best seat in the room, and I can't look away! (Can't look away!) I don't live in twenty twenty-six, I'm five years up ahead, and the present's getting blurry, it's the future in my head. Dozens of turbines running, and not a permit in sight; now they'll buy your house, if you sign away your right. Anyway! (Anyway!) No. Not anyway. Here's what's not on the chart: ask people what they fear, it's less the end of the world than what's already here. You want a curve? (A curve!) I've got a curve! (A curve!) The groups that want a say on data centres? (Doubled!) In three months, in forty-nine states! (Forty-nine!) Texas said, pay your own way! (Pay your way!) New York said, rules come first! (Rules first!) No more turbines on a trailer with no permit! (No more!) Southaven! (Southaven!) Ten thousand neighbours took it to court! Five years out? (Five years out!) Then you've got the time to do it right! Get a permit! Pay your way! (Pay your way!) And answer for what you do today! (Answer for today!) (Answer for today!) (Answer for today!) Lyrics written with Claude Opus 5.5. Music generated with Suno. Video made with Claude Opus 5.5. Claude is made by Anthropic, an AI company.