In a June 28, 2026 opinion column for The Daily Memphian, guest columnist Joseph Ryan Kelly argues that Memphis Mayor Paul Young is "gaslighting" the city regarding xAI. Kelly, a former public school teacher now working at Rhodes College, states that if Mayor Young truly believes Anthropic’s partnership with xAI is unequivocally good news for Memphis, then he is badly misreading the moment. The column references environmental activists who blocked the entrance of xAI's Paul Lowrey Road location to protest the pollution generated by the data center's gas-powered turbines on May 1, 2026.