Using Artificial Intelligence to Reduce Tax Fraud

The terms "artificial intelligence" and "machine learning" immediately bring up thoughts from movies like "The Matrix" where machines become self-aware and want to end the world. While this may make for an exciting plot in Hollywood, it is not reality outside of the theater. In real life, however, machine learning--which gives computers the ability to see hidden patterns in existing data and progressively improve performance ("learn") without being explicitly programmed--serves as a practical tool to data analysts. The job is not to turn robots into people, but instead efficiently find recurring themes that would otherwise remain obscured inside of large amounts of data to provide end-users with actionable information. These technologies have played a pivotal role in reducing fraud, waste and abuse in organizations of all types and sizes, including departments of revenue that collect taxes.