House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has launched an investigation into the IRS to find out whether they use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to surveil American taxpayers.
Jordan and Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., sent letters to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Attorney General Merrick Garland, pointing to a press release in which the IRS said AI “will help IRS compliance teams better detect tax cheating, identify emerging compliance threats and improve case selection tools to avoid burdening taxpayers with needless ‘no-change’ audits.”
“However, recent reporting alleges that the IRS’s use of AI has also included actively monitoring American citizens’ bank accounts en masse and without legal process,” they wrote, citing a report by James O’Keefe.
“Video footage obtained by an investigative media outlet appears to capture Alex Mena, an IRS official working in the agency’s Criminal Investigations Unit, admitting that the IRS has a new system’ that uses AI to target ‘potential abusers’ by examining all returns, bank statements, and related financial information for ‘potential for fraud.’ “
“Mena asserted that the new AI system has the ability to access and monitor ‘all the information from all the companies in the world.'”
The man purported to be IRS official Alex Mena says in the video that the RS had no issue “going after the small people… Like destroying people’s lives.”
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The IRS has pledged not to increase audit rates for those making under $400,000 per year.
Jordan and Hageman wrote.:
“The Committee and Select Subcommittee have reason to believe that the IRS is working with other federal agencies to conduct this AI-powered warrantless financial surveillance.”
“The use of AI technology to actively monitor millions of Americans’ private transactions, bank accounts, and related financial information – without any legal process – is highly concerning.”
“This kind of pervasive financial surveillance, carried out in coordination with federal law enforcement, into Americans’ private financial records raises serious doubts about the IRS’s – and the federal government’s – respect for Americans’ fundamental civil liberties.”
READ: Former IRS Employee Who Leaked Trump’s Tax Returns Faces 5 Years Prison
