A row of servers in Google's data centre in Douglas County, Georgia, in the US.
Explainer - Anyone with an internet connection can now fire off a query to an AI agent - but what's the real-world environmental impact of the 'fourth industrial revolution'?
Conversations about AI in New Zealand have centred more recently on its effect on the world of work.
The government plans to save $2.4 billion in baseline costs over the next four years by cutting nearly 9000 public sector jobs - and says in many cases AI will fill the gap.
But a new global report, published by a UN think-tank, has laid bare the other real-world cost of enmeshing AI into everything we do: its environmental and carbon footprint.
