The Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers
CITY OF LONDON
Founded 1995 & Incorporated by Royal Charter 2009
Lunch with the Playing Card Makers
The Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers held a joint lunch with the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards on the 30th July at Dyers’ Hall. Masters Matthew Peppit and Nick Prentice spoke about the strong personal links the two companies have and our key guest, Professor Michael Mainelli, provided an interesting insight into Artificial Intelligence and its use.
The seating plan was selected by picking a card on entrance and finding the matching card on the table. The company and conversation were convivial and the wine more than reflected the excellent food. An enjoyable time was had by all.
Professor Mainelli’s speech on AI covered a lot of very interesting ground but the following excerpts (hopefully) capture the spirit of his speech:
Whose values? What goals? Who controls? And who audits the auditors when they are machines?
Which brings me to a word we rarely use at a Livery lunch: Adultery. Adultery is a fundamental breach of trust. It is the betrayal of an intimate, solemn relationship in favour of a cheap, transactional imitation.
If we surrender our judgment, our ethics, and our critical thinking entirely to automated systems—if we pretend an algorithm can replace the deeply personal, moral duty of a professional to a client or a player to their peers—we are committing a form of intellectual adultery. We are cheating on our own humanity.
If machines are smarter than us, what remains? If they can write, analyse, and even create—what is our role? I would suggest three answers.
First: we are the source of values. Machines do not originate ethics; they reflect and amplify ours. A programmed decision is not an ethical decision. An ethical decision may be to break the law.
Second: we are the arbiters of meaning. A perfectly optimised tax strategy or a perfectly played hand is meaningless without human context.
Third: whatever the outcome – we are the ones who must live with the consequences.
We are not being asked to out-calculate our machines. We are being asked to exhibit what they cannot calculate nor feel: nerve, judgement, and the occasional glorious, irrational bluff.
Lots for us all to think about.