AI chatbots are not suited to help file taxes, even as an assistant, a new report from The Washington Post claims.
According to the news outlet, the AI-powered tax assistants from TurboTax and H&R Block have been proven to generate irrelevant and even completely wrong answers regarding tax inquiries.
The AI chatbots "Intuit Assist" and "AI Tax Assist" reportedly offer incorrect filing status and information about the Internal Revenue System's guidelines on cryptocurrency.
At least half of the 16 questions prompted by the chatbots have been marked as erroneous.
AI Chatbots Still Under Development, Tax Advisors Claim
Both companies clarified that their chatbots are "still learning" and "developing." The companies said their AIs are meant to just help people understand taxes rather than actually calculate.
However, they did not provide reasons why the chatbots with several serious flaws were still released to the public, considering the importance of the information they are providing.
The two companies did not provide information on the development of their chatbots, as well.
Experts: AI Will Not Replace Most of the Jobs Yet
Despite promises to bring full automation to workplaces, AI at its current stage has been proven time and time as less effective than humans in most areas.
A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that AI deployment remains an expensive venture for most companies since most jobs are still not fully at risk of being replaced by the technology.
The budget for developing the needed AI model to fully automate operations is noted to be much higher than just hiring actual humans to do the work.
Other industries, like the medical field, are also somewhat immune to the threats of AI in terms of job security since chatbots and AI assistants have been noted to provide wrong diagnoses to patients.
It is worth noting that the unregulated advancement of AI will eventually pose dangers to other jobs soon if no direct intervention is made, as predicted by the International Monetary Fund.
