Kids fearing monsters lurking in their closets have nothing on their parents these days.
In what amounts to a perfect storm on government bureaucracy and Big Tech style AI prowess, the IRS has some serious plans for the future.
And government tax agent robots spying on social media accounts is definitely on the table.
Vast amounts of taxpayer funds have already been dumped into making the IRS one insanely creepy government agency.
If you have an unwelcome excuse to call the IRS this tax season, chances are you’ll end up on the phone with a robot right away—as long as your tax bill is less than $25,000.
When news about the new system came out last June, CPAs immediately questioned the ability of an AI system to walk taxpayers through the creation of a complex payment plan.
The IRS’ AI voice bots
“Does anyone actually get anything settled by AI voice bots for any company, let alone the Internal Revenue Service?” Florida CPA Howard L. Markowitz asked NBC News.
Along with irritating the garbage out of you, as a taxpayer you’re helping to foot the $70 million bill for the IRS to implement technology that’s supposed to deliver better customer service.
But robots answering the phones is only the tip of the iceberg.
Back in 2018 the IRS cut a deal for $90 million with Palantir Technologies in a move Bloomberg Tax declared “May Make IRS ‘Big Brother-ish’ While Chasing Cheats.”
The seven-year contract included implementing technology to stalk taxpayers’ social media accounts trolling for information that conflicts with what they filed in tax records.
Author says Artificial Intelligence will conduct future audits
Now in the fifth year of that roll-out process it’s likely taxpayers will start experiencing the pain of living in a futuristic world where robots are not only answering the phone, they are actually getting audited by them.
According to libertarian author Kristin Tate, the change in the wind is going to completely shake up life as we know it.
“The IRS will undergo a computing revolution in the next decade, as will all of the federal government,” Tate wrote in an opinion piece for The Hill. “The implementation of artificial intelligence will bring changes to government record-keeping greater than the advent of the internet.”
While some will argue that honest taxpayers will have nothing to fear, Tate argues that it isn’t so simple.
“Major tax cheats who offshore their funds in secret accounts wouldn’t be able to keep them any longer,” she noted. “But the technology will be applied to everyone, and soon the IRS will be able to see if someone slipped you $50 to help a friend of a friend move.”
“This information could be used to automatically send penalties, warnings and audit notices, Tate continued. “Once the tech is in place and operational, you’ll wish for the old IRS back.”
Expanded government power has a way of inevitably leading to oppression.
And this latest high tech government effort has potential to become far more dystopian than even “Big Brother” in George Orwell’s classic novel 1984.
Stay tuned to Unmuzzled News for any updates to this ongoing story.
