Comment by ayende
15 hours ago
Human accountants also have a very important property: liability.
If a certified accountant told me to do X, I'm covered (at least to the point they would assist in recovering, or I can get compensation through their insurance). If LLM tells me, I'm in a bigger problem.
Most small businesses cannot afford CPAs for everyday tasks. At best a CPA signs off on the annual summaries. Most day to day work is done by bookkeepers who are not CPAs.
In my area (Vermont) the going rate for a good CPA is $200/hr. Bookkeepers are $20-30/hr.
Most small businesses also cant afford the risk of current LLMs putting garbage in their books that, in the best case, has to be cleaned up or redone, or, in the worst case, gets the IRS up your ass
There is "LLM misinformation" insurance, a very new branch of cyber insurance.