India, Sept. 19 -- ChatGPT currently processes about 2.5 billion queries a day, up from 1 billion a day in December.

Integrating AI into existing tools such as search engines could raise the electricity demands of these programs tenfold, a 2024 report by the International Energy Agency estimates.

All this, in a world already battling a climate crisis and intensifying resource scarcities.

And for what, some researchers are asking.

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There are various areas of concern. Resource use is one.

"Who gets to benefit from this technology and who gets left out - that's another," says Leona Verdadero, programme specialist with Unesco's Digital Policies and Digital Transformation division. "Consider this. About 32% of the world's population, ...