The processing of a search query using OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot uses 10 times more power than one using Google, according to research. 

Goldman Sachs researchers report that increasingly complex nature and widespread use of generative AI systems are driving a massive increase in electricity consumption and are expected to drive a 160 percent increase in data centre power demand by the end of the decade. 

Other studies suggest a ChatGPT query range from 25 times to over one hundred times that of a conventional search query. 

This higher energy usage has major environmental impacts, Goldman Sachs says.

With the majority of energy coming from burning fossil fuels such as coal and gas, carbon dioxide emissions - the primary driver of climate change - of data centers may more than double between 2022 and 2030, it reckons.