The ebonyInternal Revenue Service (IRS) has plans to take advantage of the "AI boom" to fill glaring workforce gaps, following the layoff of thousands of tax agents.
In a May 6 oversight hearing of the House Appropriations Committee, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained that the agency would be leaning into AI solutions in order to accommodate further reductions in the IRS' budget and staff and not fall behind on tax collection. The Treasury's budget proposal includes the removal of another 40,000 jobs.
SEE ALSO: Trump plans to kill Energy Star appliance programAccording to Bessent, proposed cuts to the agency's IT budget could be an opportunity to modernize and restructure the agency's existing IT infrastructure, as the current administration hones in on "wasteful" spending. "I believe, through smarter IT, through this AI boom, that we can use that to enhance collections. And I would expect that collections would continue to be very robust, as they were this year,” he said.
"IRS already uses AI for business functions including operational efficiency, compliance and fraud detection, and taxpayer services," the agency told the Register.
The tax agency has lost about 11 percent of its workforce since Trump appointee Elon Musk set its sights on downsizing the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency ("DOGE) — Musk has reportedly set a goal of trimming the IRS down by at least 40 percent, with internal memos alerting staff to biweekly Reduction in Force (RIF) notices. According to a recent report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), an agency watchdog, the majority of those cuts have affected revenue agents. Between January and March, 31 percent of agents have been terminated or taken a deferred resignation plan. That's around 3,600 auditors now off the job.
Elsewhere in the federal government, agencies are implementing more AI solutions at the behest of the administration's Big Tech leaders. Supplementing President Trump's executive orders and updated policies on the federal government's AI use, generative AI has become new priority items for the Department of Defense, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
In February, Musk announced he was developing an AI chatbot to analyze government contracts and "increase productivity" among U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) employees. DOGE has also reportedly begun staffing a project to place AI agents in government offices. Musk was later accused of directing DOGE to use AI to surveil internal communications between federal workers, including employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Topics Artificial Intelligence Social Good Government Politics
This new app is like Shazam for frogs
Yes, that was Ke Huy Quan on the phone in 'The White Lotus' Season 3
SpaceX just stuck another rocket landing at sea, this time before dawn
Mastering Gmail Search
Get a Smart AcousticPlus acoustic electric guitar for $199.99
Best smartwatch deal: Get $70 off a Samsung Galaxy Watch7 and a free watch band
Free Rita's Italian Ice: How to get free Italian Ice on March 20
'Severance' Season 2, episode 7, explained: What is happening to Gemma at Lumon?
Chinese scientists have cloned two monkeys to advance human medicine
Best Apple AirTag Deal: 4
The Ember Mug 2 is 40% off as a Best Buy deal of the day
Best Nespresso deal: The Nespresso Vertuo Pop+ is just $69.99 at Woot
Bangladesh vs. New Zealand 2025 livestream: Watch ICC Champions Trophy for free
Impact of Temperature on Intel CPU Performance
2025 Oscar winners: See the full list
The 'recession indicator' meme, explained
The 10 Biggest Changes of the Last 10 Years in Video Games
Best headphones deal: Save $116 on Sennheiser Momentum 4
Camera lenses literally melted during the solar eclipse
Earth sends Cassini a whole lot of love after the mission comes to a bittersweet end
Instagram, YouTube, Facebook fail women, sexism report card finds'MiddleTinder tests twoAirbnb struggles to recover stolen domain name from sneaky thief'If you can't handle me at my worst' has evolved into a bigger, better memeColin Kaepernick shares his truth on Netflix in a way you haven't heard beforeInstagram tests "take a break" remindersRemember Apple's $19 cleaning cloth? Well, Samsung is giving away its own for free.Twitter makes it easier to search through a specific user's tweetsArnold Schwarzenegger comes back from heart surgery with a Tweet for the agesHundreds gather to pay their respects at Stephen Hawking's funeralGreat white shark greets Australian police at work on the waterAirbnb struggles to recover stolen domain name from sneaky thiefThe best new FaceTime features on iOS 15Home Depot is selling a giant 8Twitter makes it easier to search through a specific user's tweetsViral TikTok for air fryer cleaning trick works, but it's not magic'The Harder They Fall' tells an epic story before it hits the opening titlesViral TikTok hand gesture signaling domestic violence leads to rescue of missing teenScott Pruitt just tried to explain those raises and it went oh so terribly wrong 14 best Cyber Monday Dyson deals of 2023 A Change in the Climate by Michel Faber Redux: Courting Sleep by The Paris Review Best Buy 3 The best Cyber Monday Instant Pot deals 2023 Amazon workers went on their 'biggest ever global strike' on Black Friday The Jets, the Bills, and the Art of Losing by Rowan Ricardo Phillips Redux: Cold Night of October by The Paris Review 9 Cyber Monday air fryer deals: Instant Pot Vortex, more How to watch FAMU vs. Howard football livestreams: kickoff time, streaming deals, and more Emeric Pressburger’s Lost Nazi Novel by Lucy Scholes Are We All Living in a Simulation? by Rich Cohen Poetry Rx: The Fucking Reticence by Kaveh Akbar The best Cyber Monday deals on air purifiers: Shark, Dyson, Blueair, and more Is Drake really the master of his own memes? Harold Bloom, 1930–2019 by The Paris Review The Radical Portraits of Amy Sherald by The Paris Review What Poetry Can Predict by Naja Marie Aidt A Bluebeard of Wives by Sabrina Orah Mark How to watch ODU vs. WKU football livestreams: kickoff time, streaming deals, and more
2.042s , 8226.5078125 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【ebony】,Co-creation Information Network