Accountability and the rise of AI

Chat GPT has become a global sensation and represents a paradigm shift in the way we interact with computers. For the first time, users can ask nearly any question and receive a coherent, human-like response. On March 14th, 2023, OpenAI unveiled GPT-4, the next significant milestone in this rapidly evolving journey. At Dext, we have been early users of these models and are excited about how this technology will help our customers and teams do even more.

But what exactly is GPT? GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, and while it sounds complicated, it's a technology that can be easily utilised. Think of it like an engine in your car or your iPhone; you don't need to understand how it was built to use it effectively. However, it's worth trying to understand the technology to leverage it to its fullest potential.

To train ChatGPT, it consumed massive amounts of content. It was shown text with the next word hidden, like teaching a child to guess what word comes next and rewarded for getting it right. Through this unsupervised "guess the next word" game, ChatGPT was able to guess the next word in a medical book, an article, or an email response. The model was then further shaped with human review, resulting in a model that is extremely convincing at providing a comprehensible response when given a "prompt." Lets see an example.

The question of whether ChatGPT has true intelligence or a sophisticated statistical model capable of predicting the next word and learning patterns in poems is up for debate. However, beyond its impressive capabilities in language processing, ChatGPT also has emergent abilities that can revolutionise the game of accounting and business.

With its remarkable generalisation abilities, these models can assist accountants and bookkeepers in responding to client queries, addressing customer emails, and even generating excel formulas and code. Its versatility and adaptability make it an invaluable tool for increasing efficiency and productivity. By harnessing the power of these models businesses can streamline their operations and focus on more strategic tasks, while also providing better customer service and support.

Accounting and bookkeeping are integral components of any successful business and the industry has undergone significant changes over the years, from manual paper-based processes to software and cloud-based systems. With the emergence of a new class of Artificial Intelligence, there is a significant shift in the roles and the way that financial information can be managed and processed. However, accountability remains and no AI is going to replace that yet like no AI has replaced the pilots in a plane, but like Chess the game is now different, grandmasters use AI to analyse and play better, AI is a force multiplier so ensure you have a platform to ride this new wave.

Our platform at Dext leverages state-of-the-art AI to automate the classification and entry of expenses and invoices into leading accounting platforms like Xero, Sage, and QuickBooks. We also ensure that data is correct by analysing the health of accounting data and reconciling complex ecommerce transactions across platforms such as Shopify, Amazon, and Stripe. We are continually exploring new innovations such as these groundbreaking large language models and other cutting-edge techniques to give our customers an edge.

As Warren Buffet once famously said, "Accounting is the language of business." With the rapid progress of AI in understanding and generating human language, large language models like GPT-4 can now be applied to financial data to explore, reason, summarise, and classify data for accounting purposes. Although these models are still in their early stages, we believe they will unlock incredible value for our customers over time, driving efficiency and accuracy not only in financial reporting but also in collaboration and advisory work.

The ability to converse with financial data, ask for summarised insights, identify trends, and forecast was previously nonsensical before GPT-4 came along. While this may sound too good to be true, the reality is that these models are still very new and have several problems. They may hallucinate or make up numbers, leading to completely false yet convincing statements. However, this does not mean that they are not useful or will not improve. In fact, they will improve quickly.

At Dext, we have always believed in the power of AI and its ability to transform the accounting industry. One key aspect of our approach is leveraging multiple AI models and architectures. This allows us to achieve the most accurate results for our customers in the industry. While we still have a long way to go, we are proud to lead the pack in this field. The vast amounts of data we have processed over the last 10+ years and our continued ingestion of 300 million plus documents per year undergo extensive review for correctness and classification. This provides us with an unrivalled foundation to continuously evolve.

So let’s try something that demonstrates both the adaptability and hallucinations or errors. Let’s ask GPT-4 to pretend to be a General Ledger for a business and tell it about transactions to account for.

At this point it got things wrong but I asked it to try again and it corrected itself.

It may seem counterintuitive that a model trained on a "guess the next word" game can imitate a general ledger and correct its calculations when challenged. However, even the creators of the model, OpenAI, are not entirely sure how or why this works. While we will not be implementing GL’s like this, it provides a natural interface to interact with them, and this just scratches the surface of the possibilities.

Extensive research is currently underway across the world to explore how these models work, how they reason, and how they imitate intelligence by compressing human knowledge into a model. We are in the early phases of a transformational shift in technology, and while these models have their issues and limitations, they show enormous potential.

At Dext, we understand the importance of accountability in the accounting industry and the need to embrace AI advancements responsibly to create a more efficient and prosperous future for all. For decades, we have been leveraging AI and constantly experimenting with the latest advancements to provide effortless accounting. Our universal interface for accounting systems enables seamless integration with various platforms, streamlining the process for our clients.

We envision a future where effortless accounting saves everyone time, doing business should be easier than it is today. As we explore the potential of chat-based interfaces, conversing with financial data and automating even more of the accounting process we recognize accountability is key and that humans empowered by AI are the ultimate goal to realise the full potential of AI in accounting and bookkeeping. We are committed to staying at the cutting edge of AI advancements and applying them responsibly to better serve our customers. We believe that by working together, we can harness the power of AI to drive innovation, efficiency, and accuracy in the accounting industry.