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IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in 'efficiency' shakeup

theregister.com

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Re: IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in 'efficiency' shakeup

#61

Post by righthand »

jdross wrote: post #52
cdrnsf wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the private sector is how the US has arrived at a miserable, unworkable healthcare system and an out of control carceral system.

Is there a single private sector more removed from market incentives than healthcare?

I’m going to drop my doctor this year because he abuses appointments. I call in about an issue and he charges me $75 for telehealth. Then he wants me to come in to run labs for the telehealth call. Another $75 at least. Then another telehealth call for the results. And another one for the results from the radiology department. I told him I have a high out of pocket and he says “I’m sorry to hear that.” Then books me for a follow up.

Doctors do not care about the healthcare system one bit.

Re: IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in 'efficiency' shakeup

#62

Post by mikkupikku »

newswasboring wrote: post #55
kerblang wrote: post #4

I'm starting to realize that an LLM isn't gonna take my job, but it's beginning to make the job aggravating enough to quit anyhow. So many managers have decided they're going to have an AI Miracle and aren't interested in hearing otherwise, no matter what staff tells them.

The part I don't understand is why can't they wait for the efficiency gains to materialize before firing people? Better pay a few people for a few months extra than be wrong. If AI is going to bring in all this efficiency, this would be peanuts.

Its like the "throw him into the deep end" method of teaching kids to swim. (I don't endorse it, but it has worked for many people.)

Re: IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in 'efficiency' shakeup

#63

Post by Nition »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #3

The thing that makes me nervous is the statement that they plan to use AI. AI? The thing that is mathematically incapable of perfection, on finance information, for which perfection is table stakes? Not to mention all the privacy issues (although that boat has sailed).

I thought I would give the Treasury the benefit of the doubt for a moment and check whether they meant LLMs like we're all assuming, or possibly a more specific finance-focused type of AI. Like how we have specialist neural net AI helping with radiology.

Looking at their official info document[1]... "a secure AI-based chat solution"... "AI-assisted code development"...

Okay they mean LLMs, carry on.

[1] https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Treasury-AI-Strat...

Re: IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in 'efficiency' shakeup

#64

Post by [deleted] »

munk-a wrote: post #9

Defunding the IRS is nothing but an effort to reduce tax enforcement. People that have relatively straightforward finances can be trivially audited in a formulaic way with data that's on hand - a lack of human auditing resources tends to benefit those with more complex finances which also tend to be the people with a lot of money who can afford to lobby for less enforcement funding. Also for reference, in 2024 the IR…

[deleted]

Re: IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in 'efficiency' shakeup

#66

Post by nritchie »

tokyobreakfast wrote: post #10

If you're not asking, "how many of these people did nothing?" you've never worked in the public sector.

This is just the lazy comment of someone who believes all the right-wing propaganda about government. In my experience, government employees take pride in doing a job worth doing and doing it well.

Re: IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in 'efficiency' shakeup

#67

Post by hinkley »

It always sets off my spidey sense when people say 'leadership' because too many conflate management with leadership, and that is unfortunately not always true.

Few managers are actually leaders. Many are trumped up scribes. And many leaders are not managers.

Re: IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in 'efficiency' shakeup

#68

Post by cranberryturkey »

netsharc wrote: post #60
munk-a wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the complex financials are generally intentionally created for sheltering and that complexity is only possible because of our overly complex tax code which has been made significantly more complex by tax preparer lobbyists from Intuit and others.

The reflex when people hear "complex" in this era: "Can we use AI for it?". Next month's headline: "IRS signs 200-million dollar deal with Grok to use AI to analyse tax returns, determine who gets audited".

[flagged]

Re: IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in 'efficiency' shakeup

#69

Post by akdev1l »

netsharc wrote: post #60
munk-a wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the complex financials are generally intentionally created for sheltering and that complexity is only possible because of our overly complex tax code which has been made significantly more complex by tax preparer lobbyists from Intuit and others.

The reflex when people hear "complex" in this era: "Can we use AI for it?". Next month's headline: "IRS signs 200-million dollar deal with Grok to use AI to analyse tax returns, determine who gets audited".

You’re thinking too far behind. They can just use the AI to generate what your taxes would’ve been.

Just have a script with “what are the taxes owed by $name” and print the output

I’ll take $5M now and you can own 50% of my startup: GenTaxAI

Re: IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in 'efficiency' shakeup

#70

Post by nritchie »

jdross wrote: post #52
cdrnsf wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the private sector is how the US has arrived at a miserable, unworkable healthcare system and an out of control carceral system.

Is there a single private sector more removed from market incentives than healthcare?

And yet all countries with socialized systems pay less per capita for healthcare than we do and pretty much all have better health outcomes. Further privatizing our system will only make it more dis-functional. Healthcare isn't a normal marketplace. * When you really need it, you can't shop around. * There is a knowledge asymmetry built in. * A civilized society can't just let poor children die of preventable causes.
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