A new artificial intelligence-powered tax bot is lifting the lid on the bizarre questions people are asking the technology in private.
And it’s weirder than you could possibly imagine.
AI powered SME business account provider ANNA (Absolutely No Nonsense Admin) Money has launched an AI assistant.
The assistant has been trained on over 100,000 pages of tax legislation and guidance.
Since its launch, customers have asked the bot more than 30,000 questions, with around 500 being sent in daily.
While many of those are standard tax-time fare, others have gone off track.
Some of the real questions asked by customers include, ‘How to do sex?’, ‘If I sell a cow, do I need to charge VAT?’, ‘Can I claim driving lessons for my cleaner?’
Other questions included ‘Is ice cream always a variable supply?’ and ‘Are horses considered company assets?’
‘We trained it on everything from GST law to livestock accounting,’ Anna Money CEO Ryan Edwards-Pritchard told Daily Mail on Friday.
‘But even we were surprised with further questions being about alpaca write-offs, wedding DJs, and whether 600 packs of Tim Tams count as a business expense.’
‘That said, at least our AI assistant answered all of them. Instantly. No judgment.
‘So if you’ve ever Googled “Can my dog’s birthday party be tax-deductible?” you’ll feel right at home, we’ve built the business account for you.’
In 2018, ANNA launched a business debit card in the UK that emits a ‘meow’ sound through its mobile app whenever a transaction occurs.
The company is also understood to be developing a card that ‘woofs’ which could soon be available to customers Down Under.
‘Tax should be a little less painful,’ Edwards-Pritchard said. ‘Why not make it fun?’
A recent study produced by the University of Melbourne, revealed that half of ns, or 50 per cent, use AI regularly.
However, it also found that ns were less trusting in the technology, with only 30 per cent believing AI’s benefits outweigh the risks.
Aussies were also found to have lower AI literacy rates than other nations, with just 24 per cent reporting to have undertaken AI-related training or study.