Well, there's a problem that needs a solution. Plus, a government contract. I wonder if anyone can come up with a LLM for simple tax issues.
I can't think of a worse use for an LLM...
Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
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Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#12I called a half dozen times on the English line and got no where.
I called once on the Spanish line and just spoke English, got my problem solved in under 5mins.
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#13The IRS is a perennial budgeting football for Congress, even though it's one of the few agencies for whom increasing their budget creates positive net revenue for the federal government; its enforcement arm is down 30% in staffing since 2010, with predictably dismal results. As an anecdotal comparison, I had a fairly long-running issue years ago with the IRS over a minor problem (some expenditures got posted to one f…
One of the major parties is deliberately sabotaging it (along with USPS, FDA, and NOAA) so they can point out how useless it is and it should just be shut down.
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Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#14Well, there's a problem that needs a solution. Plus, a government contract. I wonder if anyone can come up with a LLM for simple tax issues.
It would have to be able to fix your records in the IRS database, not just give you advice from the FAQ like most LLM support bots. Which could be awesome, but it'd have to be robust against prompt injection attacks and other bamboozlement.
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the major parties is deliberately sabotaging it (along with USPS, FDA, and NOAA) so they can point out how useless it is and it should just be shut down.
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They got wait times down: https://apnews.com/article/filing-season-irs-tax-day-taxpaye...
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#16Well, there's a problem that needs a solution. Plus, a government contract. I wonder if anyone can come up with a LLM for simple tax issues.
I can't think of a worse use for an LLM...
You really under-estimate how googleable 97% of customer service calls are. The average person does not make any attempt to solve their own problems before calling customer support. That's just life.
Yes in an ideal world we would have a live customer support representative for every function in every facet of society, but there are a limited number of human beings available for such things, and this is a pretty reasonable place to do a first triage using a LLM for very simple questions.
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the major parties is deliberately sabotaging it (along with USPS, FDA, and NOAA) so they can point out how useless it is and it should just be shut down.
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(Off-topic but I like your username: https://akkartik.itch.io/carousel)
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#18Taking a step back... one big problem is that our tax code is way too complex. It means that even common people are wading through a minefield every time they file their taxes.
Between unclear deductions and credits, trickiness for those that have to pay estimated taxes, and a mafia led by Intuit lobbying against simple filing it's definitely a pay to play system.
More broadly, our tax code is designed to benefit the uber wealthy. High $$$ assets can be sold through holding companies, etc. making enforcement extremely difficult.
Phone lines being flooded seem more of a symptom than anything.
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the major parties is deliberately sabotaging it (along with USPS, FDA, and NOAA) so they can point out how useless it is and it should just be shut down.
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A majority doesn't mean much these days. A supermajority is necessary to get things passed that the other side doesn't agree with [1].
The democrats haven't had a supermajority since 2011 [2].
[1] https://www.governing.com/context/how-did-the-senate-end-up-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/111th_United_States_Congress
Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't think of a worse use for an LLM...
You really under-estimate how googleable 97% of customer service calls are. The average person does not make any attempt to solve their own problems before calling customer support. That's just life. Yes in an ideal world we would have a live customer support representative for every function in every facet of society, but there are a limited number of human beings available for such things, and this is a pretty reas…
It's one of the reasons why I stopped joining facebook groups. Every day the same ^%$#^#%$ post by a [adjective] [derogatory term] who couldn't be bothered to use Google / Bing / ect.