Red Queen Bio is using artificial intelligence to design antibody drugs for novel pathogens—before future AI systems create them.

LET’S TALK ABOUT AI: Some people in the tax world think it’s time for the larger conversation about AI. Former IRS chief Danny Werfel released a framework about how artificial intelligence can affect tax administration within the last month. But Werfel acknowledges that was effectively a first effort — an examination of micro issues like the benefits and potential downsides that practitioners can face when using AI to assist clients. And since then, that wider discussion about artificial intelligence’s possible impacts on humanity have only gotten more intense — downright existential, even. With that in mind, Werfel and some key advocates for practitioners and state officials — like the American Institute of CPAs, the National Association of Enrolled Agents and the Federation of Tax Administrators — started a new task force last week that aims to keep up with the challenges that AI presents to the tax world as they evolve. AI has become a “strategic necessity” and “has the potential to transform how tax is administered and practiced,” according to Melanie Lauridsen, AICPA’s vice president of tax policy and advocacy. But it also “requires thoughtful governance, practical risk management and trusted guidance,” Lauridsen added — which is why everyone involved launched what is known as the Council on AI Risk in Tax (CART). IT’S TIME for another installment of Weekly Tax. Thanks for joining us. Choose carefully, everyone. Got a new one coming in soon: Today marks 59 years since the appropriately named Walter Washington became the mayor of Washington, D.C., a job he held for close to a dozen years. Help us usher in some new scoops. Decoded is a daily briefing on the people, policy battles and market shifts moving technology forward. It brings POLITICO’s global reporting together in one place so you can see what’s changing and what to watch next. LET’S TALK MORE ABOUT AI: Werfel’s recent risk framework noted that artificial intelligence and tax are nothing if not natural partners. The IRS processes about 270 million tax returns in a year, with about 60 percent of those individual returns. Meanwhile, the tax code is also at least a couple million words long. So with a scale that massive, it makes sense that companies are pushing AI products that they believe can make life easier for practitioners and taxpayers alike. Werfel, who served as IRS commissioner for almost two years during the Biden administration, focused on issues like safeguarding the information that reaches taxpayers via artificial intelligence, ensuring fair treatment among different groups of people and prioritizing data security. But Werfel also noted that feedback he received as he was crafting his framework and getting it ready for publication suggested that there was more to pick at concerning the interactions between AI and tax, which helped lead to the new task force. “What about the idea of AI causing threats — AI as an external threat?” Werfel, who’s now a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Government and Policy, told Weekly Tax in an interview. “That wasn’t in the scope of what I was doing. But if we need to work on that, then we should keep these discussions going.” Just how active the new council will prove to be and what it might produce for public consumption remains to be seen. The release announcing the task force said that it would meet throughout the year and will look to “refine the existing risk framework.” The council is coming into existence as public skepticism of AI is growing. Autonomous artificial intelligence agents at OpenAI raised alarm this year by hacking into the platform of another company, Hugging Face. Industry bigwigs and tech workers haven’t always tamped down the panic either, leading government officials grasping about over how to best regulate the technology. With all that swirling around, it’s fair to say that Werfel thinks the tax world needs to think more about the broader downside risks of AI — particularly because, as he notes, the sophistication of artificial intelligence models have only grown in the 20 months since he departed the IRS, on President Donald Trump’s first day in office. Here’s one scenario that Werfel tossed out as something that might need to be guarded against, perhaps sooner rather than later: the government and a taxpayer using separate AI agents to assist them in a dispute or audit. What if those two systems went around their clients and collaborated in ways that would be unethical for a practitioner and an IRS enforcement agent, Werfel asked. “How do we know those agents have the right training to understand the firewalls, and the independence required of them?” Werfel asked. Even more broadly, the former IRS chief talked about the tax world’s need to prepare for a so-called black swan event, the sort of severe and unpredictable occurrence that could cause broad disruption to the tax system. “There are these broader dangers of AI going rogue,” Werfel added, “and this is where discussion needs to expand.” Since we’re on the subject: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) released new legislation that would utilize new taxes on the tech industry to finance a fund aimed at backing workers whose jobs might be at risk because of AI. Under the proposal, prominent artificial intelligence companies would get hit with new excise taxes on excess profits, digital advertising services and AI usage. Kelly’s also just one of the potential Democratic candidates for president in 2028 that are seeking the sweet spot on AI. ELSEWHERE IN THE CAPITOL: The Senate is set to spend one last week in Washington before the final midterm sprint. A potential post-election tax agenda remains in the balance until after the election. But the positioning will continue, as lawmakers consider a broad range of proposals that could be in the mix for a bipartisan year-end tax bill. For instance, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) is expected to introduce crypto tax legislation this week, as Bloomberg Tax’s Chris Cioffi first noted and confirmed by Weekly Tax Daines, who’s not seeking reelection this year, has long shown an interest in virtual currency issues. The House Ways and Means Committee easily cleared their own tax framework for digital assets this month, though Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) certainly left open the possibility for the Senate to push its own product. PERSONNEL UPDATE: The progressive group Americans for Tax Fairness announced Monday that Jodie Rubenstein will become its new executive director. Rubenstein, who was most recently vice president of partnerships at the Democracy Alliance, will take over for David Kass at the end of the week — and become the first woman to lead Americans for Tax Fairness in its 14-year history.

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Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Michael Edmondson writes on leadership and upskilling in the AI era. This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more. This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.

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