New government AI chatbot accused of offering 'misleading' tax advice despite 90% accuracy claim
Ian Murray, the minister for digital government and data, said the bot had been “tested to essentially destruction” and is “much more accurate than the human context”
A new government AI chatbot has been accused of offering "misleading" advice by a tax expert.
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The GOV.UK Chat service - which went live on Friday, 15 May - has been billed as “the most comprehensive government-built chat tool in the world”, and draws answers from 80,000 pages of the gov.uk network.
In testing the chatbot was reportedly "90 per cent accurate" - meaning one in ten responses did not match official guidance in every detail.
Ian Murray, the minister for digital government and data, told The Times the bot had been “tested to essentially destruction” and is “much more accurate than the human context”.
The government has emphasised the bot offers information about government services rather than guidance; but Dan Neidle, founder of Tax Policy Associates, said the chatbot "gives the impression it provides advice".
He submitted a series of questions to the bot which were published in The Times, claiming the answers it offered were often "misleading".
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He asked the chatbot whether a £1,000 pay increase from £99,000 would affect tax-free childcare eligibility; the bot responded he would still be eligible for tax-free childcare because "the scheme does not have an upper income limit".
This failed to include the well-known £100,000 cliff edge where people lose eligibility for the scheme.
The tax expert also asked the bot whether he would need to declare to HMRC and pay tax if he sold two MacBooks on eBay for £1,300.
The bot said this would depend if the profit was subject to capital gains tax (CGT)- which Mr Neidle said was "stupid" because a MacBook isn't subject to CGT.
Mr Murray said one of the purposes behind the chatbot was to free up government call centre time to deal with other enquiries.
He told The Times: “The spending review across all government departments obviously sets out where headcounts are to go. Permanent secretaries, individual government departments are working on those but that is not the purpose of setting up this gov.uk chat.
“This is about providing a service to the public, making it easier for them to find the information they need, giving them more accurate information and freeing up the call centre time.”
The chatbot is part of the gov.uk app which is available on the App Store and requires a GOV.UK One Login.