AI: The Good; The Bad; The SCARY!
Artificial Intelligence or AI is everywhere and on the rise and is not restricted to business use. Certainly there are many examples of AI in business-related tools and applications that can assist in marketing, understanding client behavior, analyzing inventory fluctuations and seasonality. More recently, though, there are many free AI tools available to the general public for a variety of applications. By now most have heard of ChatGPT or GrammarlyGo to help us communicate more effectively. There are also plenty of options for art and graphics and video creation with AI applications. Many of the AI apps come with a free basic option.
I was recently in a continuing professional education webinar for taxes and the subject of AI came up. One of the attendees asked whether performing tax research via the new AI tools like Bing’s Copilot was acceptable. The presenter gave a fairly emphatic, “No” response. He stated he had actually performed his own test to see how well it did in searching and returning appropriate results. The case law history provided by the AI tool did not apply to the tax code question he asked.
Overall, I believe we can’t afford to ignore AI. It is the future, but it is currently in its infancy, and we should be wary of the veracity of the results, especially if using the results for other than having fun. Verifying the data/information will continue to be a necessity.
Yes, I think AI is fun and a good development for businesses and everyday life but should be used with caution if you’re going to rely on the results. The bad side of AI, in my opinion, is that it’s still in its infancy and will likely have quirks, bugs and issues with the accuracy of the returned results for the foreseeable future.
What’s the scary part of AI? I recently read a blog that cited an Israeli study of AI that may just knock you back on your heels. Bad actors are playing deep roles in AI, embedding very subtle code in the form of worms with zero-click phishing; you have no idea this is occurring. That is scary! I’m sure you all have strong antivirus software, and we all hope that software will detect the worms, but it appears the bad actors are always a step ahead of the antivirus software makers. See the following blog from Stu Sjouwerman from KnowBe4. It is a bit dense with “IT-ese” for those who are not super tech savvy. I feel it’s important to be aware of these risks for my own business to protect my clients and their data, but I also believe it’s important to educate my clients about these risks…especially when it’s regarding something that is becoming so commonplace and we are living in a “bring-your-own-device” to the work environment.
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Posting Date: May 16, 2024