When OpenAI released the latest version of their large language model, GPT-4, they demonstrated how it can now accurately calculate tax liability and explain the calculations to your clients. What does this mean for our profession? Asks ICB CEO, Ami Copeland
Yikes. March was the month that
OpenAI's president and co-founder, Greg Brockman, showed us how they're disrupting the future of tax work and frankly every job that humans do now.
The OpenAI demo that appeared to show tax doesn't have to be taxing
Greg Brockman, OpenAI president and co-founder, showing how GPT-4 can calculate a tax return
In a live stream to millions of viewers on 12 March, the people behind the AI language model Chat GPT that we wrote about in February, demonstrated how their latest release, GPT-4, can calculate a tax return. The key advance being that you can now paste in images or massive amounts of text, such as the US Tax Code used in their live demo, and then with a serious of prompts put it to work for you.
Getting AI to work for bookkeepers
Clearly to get the most out of AI you first of all need to know how to ask it the right questions and then, more importantly, you need the expertise to be able to check its answers. OpenAI warn that even their latest release 'still has many known limitations that we are working to address, such as social biases, hallucinations, and adversarial prompts.'
But a time-saving tool, auto-generative systems like GPT-4 most certainly will be. Perhaps they provide the opportunity for accountants to #BeMoreBookkeeper by generating an accessible explanation about tax returns and calculations in a way that doesn't make a client's eyes glaze over? Perhaps this could provide a path forward for bookkeepers who want to provide more of the services that have traditionally been the reserve of accountants.
Let's hope AI can be the informed and indefatigable wingman or woman we need to get where we want to be and that, in the not too distant future, it leads to better collaboration and cross-profession partnering, not less!
Bookkeepers can harness the power of AI
Open AI president and co-founder Greg Brockman seems genuinely wowed by the technology in the livestream saying, as it calculates a couple's tax liability, 'honestly, every time it does it, it's amazing.'
This is the place where you just get turbocharged by these AIs.
It is fundamentally about amplifying what every person is able to do.
Greg Brockman
OpenAI president and co-founder
It remains to be seen how accurate GPT-4's tax ability is, or how quickly we'll see this functionality embedded into accounting apps we already know and love, but whichever way you look at it this is a pretty significant development for our profession.
Developers will need the expert knowledge of professional bookkeepers to keep these tools in check, and business owners will need your human-touch, ethical integrity and accountability to help them embrace what's coming.
Just today Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and other high-profile tech leaders, have published an open letter calling for 'AI labs to immediately pause for at least six months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4' in what is a thrilling, or perhaps chilling, new development in the AI story.
Keep up to date and look to the future at exclusive events for bookkeepers
Bookkeepers Summit 2022
As you've probably guessed, we'll be keeping you at the forefront of the profession and in-the-know about tech at all of this year's exciting ICB events. I'm thrilled to announce that Sage and AutoEntry are headlining this year's 7-city and online Inspire Tour in June, and Xero are headlining this year's Bookkeepers Summit taking place in London and online in November.
It is testament to our profession and to your passion that the biggest names in accounting tech are rushing to support these events again. I know travel is tough and pockets feel shallower than ever, but I hope you will get involved and get together as much as you possibly can this year. I am particularly looking at our successful, established members who are vital in inspiring the next generation, and to our newbies who have so much to gain from meeting other ICB members.
ICB events are a great way to grow your network. The bookkeepers you'll meet will amplify and turbocharge your career better than any AI ever could!
Bookkeepers Summit 2022
As always we have free webinars for students and members taking place throughout the year with tickets available to purchase by non-members.
And please come and say hi to us at Accountex in May where we'll once again be sponsoring the Bookkeepers Theatre. We're also attending the Digital Accountancy Show and Accountex North and banging on about why everyone should #BeMoreBookkeeper or, failing that because we can't all be perfect, #HireMoreBookkeepers!
