Sovereignty · 2026-09-26 · 1:42

It is not measuring intelligence. It is measuring access.

A short going around proposes a simple test of how smart your AI is: ask it to go back over your past tax returns, the relevant tax law, your emails and your expenses, and suggest amendments that would save you money. A friend, we are told, saved thousands. The video is candid that results vary, and the context is explicitly American.

In favour
  • The idea underneath is sound: a careful second look at your own paperwork can find things you missed, and that is worth doing with or without a machine.
  • It is honest about the by-product, and that is the interesting sentence: you will find out all the places the AI wants to go and check for you that you have not enabled in your connections.
Worth watching
  • That makes it a test of access, not of intelligence. The model that wins is the one you let furthest in.
  • The data it asks for is the most sensitive set most of us own: several years of income, deductions and family details, plus the entire mailbox around them.
Our takeLet sensitivity decide where data goes. Public material can go to any capable cloud model; tax records and a full inbox are another class. Use a model you control, or hand over the specific documents for one question rather than a standing connection to everything. You still get the second look. You just do not give away the keys to the house to find out whether the assistant is clever.

Source: «Is your AI smart? Use this simple trick to find out» — AI News & Strategy Daily (YouTube Short, 26/9/2026)

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