SZA has hit out at AI users for being “codependent on a machine” – see what the singer had to say below.
- READ MORE: SZA – ‘SOS Deluxe: Lana’ review: chasing tranquility amid the chaos of love, life and fame
Yesterday (July 16), the ‘Kill Bill’ hitmaker took to her Instagram Stories to share a screenshot of a comment she made on the social media platform earlier in the day urging her fans and followers to stop using AI due to its environmental costs.
“Please Google how much energy and pollution it takes to run AI… Please Google the beautiful Black cities like Memphis that are SUFFERING because of Twitter’s new AI system. PLEASE JUST GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM,” she wrote.
“AI doesn’t give a fuck if you live or die I promise. THERE IS A PRICE FOR CONVENIENCE AND BLACK AND BROWN [COMMUNITIES] WILL PAY THE BRUNT OF IT EVERYTIME. We won’t get it til it’s too late. Y’all don’t hear me tho,” she continued.
sza bringing attention to ai ❤️ pic.twitter.com/mZe5aZREc3
— anthony ࣪𖤐.ᐟ (@szacentral) July 16, 2025
Regarding SZA’s mention of environmental racism and how Black and Brown communities will pay the price for the technology’s use, her claims are backed by the National Resources Defence Council (NRDC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The NRDC reports that environmental racism is defined as the “intentional siting of polluting and waste facilities in communities primarily populated by African Americans, Latines, Indigenous People, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, migrant farmworkers, and low-income workers.”
Recommended
Environmental racism affects communities that “are disproportionately exposed to fumes, toxic dust, ash, soot, and other pollutants from such hazardous facilities located in their midst. As a result, they face increased risks of health problems like cancer and respiratory issues.”
This was backed by the NAACP, which reports that Elon Musk’s xAI company has set up shop in Tennessee since June 2024, and has installed over 35 unpermitted gas turbines to avoid paying for electricity. These turbine have released “toxic chemicals that create smog and cancer-causing pollutants. Since xAI’s data center opened, nearby air pollution monitors in Memphis have reported harmful levels of smog in the air.”
The environmental costs of AI has also been a point of contention since the technology’s rise in recent years. MIT reported in a study that the “computational power required to train generative AI models that often have billions of parameters can demand a staggering amount of electricity, which leads to increased carbon dioxide emissions and pressures on the electric grid.”
MIT continues: “Beyond electricity demands, a great deal of water is needed to cool the hardware used for training, deploying, and fine-tuning generative AI models, which can strain municipal water supplies and disrupt local ecosystems. The increasing number of generative AI applications has also spurred demand for high-performance computing hardware, adding indirect environmental impacts from its manufacture and transport.”
Last year, Nick Cave joined the many artists who warned of the dangers of the rise of AI in music, saying that its usage within the industry is “unbelievably disturbing” and will have a “humiliating effect” on creatives.
Earlier this year, Elton John, Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Paul McCartney, Florence Welch, Kate Bush and Robbie Williams were among those who called on the UK government to change copyright laws amid the threat from AI.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.