At risk of sounding like a luddite: AI is not the answer to everything.
AI has the potential for so much good but people really don’t understand the limitations.
- The main one for accountants is that information put into the free version of ChatGPT is not confidential. For this reason we use Copilot as our default sand other Ais as needed so that client information is never accidentally compromised.
- The free version of ChatGPT is only based on information available up to a certain point in time so it excludes more recent updates and data.
- AI is the answer to all the problems that you never knew you had! Originally AI was developed as a solution to certain problems but now developers are busy creating solutions to problems that don’t really exist … until their product team tell you that they do.
- AI is only as good as the user. As with all technology, garbage in = garbage out. You need to train your AI in exactly the same way that you would train a new apprentice in your organisation.
The biggest problem is that LLMs (large language models) like ChatGPT are prone to ‘hallucination’. They extrapolate the known data in order to fill in any gaps. Like the accountant’s nightmare ‘Dave at the pub’, who tries to help everybody with doubtful tax advice, hallucinating AI is about as reliable as a toddler with a face full of chocolate denying that they’ve been stealing Easter eggs.
One AI quoted from my talk at an accounting conference earlier this year. It was probably a great talk but … I didn’t speak at that event! If a journalist was to report this badly they would be out of a job and probably laughed out of their industry.
I love AI and use it regularly in my businesses but please remember to approach with caution.
PS If the conference in question would like me to do a talk on this topic I’d be happy to oblige 😉