Cheryl
Artificial Intelligence Specialist


Most of our projects are data mining. They're easy to do. There's a lot of data in the IRS. 
And, for instance, to capture data on offshore tax shelters that are illegal, things like that.

I also do several web applications for irs.gov. So, one of them called an "Office Locator." 
the other is "Withholding Calculator," so that taxpayers can decide how much they should 
have withheld from their checks for the following year.

Well, our recent hires have had advance degrees, most of them. We just hired three Ph.D.s 
and one woman with a master's degree.

But you could probably also do it by just getting, at least an undergraduate degree in 
computer science, and working in -- well, we do a lot of database work. If you had database, 
that would definitely be of interest to us.

Since we deal with such large, large files, and a lot of data mining. As a project ebbs 
and flows, or you develop a new project, or you have other projects that have to be 
maintained – the Withholding Calculator needs updates every year.

There's some new tax rates. So we have to change the program, recomple, test it, and make 
sure it's got the security scans so that there are no vulnerabilities introduced, things 
like that.

You're constantly working with contractors. In 1987, I was selected for this position. I 
think it was -- the whole program was started in 1986. They decided to form a large group 
of artificial intelligence specialists, and they pulled specialists from all the different 
branches of the IRS, such as Compliance and Exam, and Computer Services -- all these 
different areas -- so that they would bring this expertise to developing projects in all 
the different areas of the IRS.

So some of them went to colleges or universities for two years, such as MIT, University 
of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania. I was actually selected for a one-year internship, 
which I completed by 1988. 

And then I came back and worked in what they called a -- they called it then, the AI Lab. 
I never thought I would end up working for the IRS. 

I was a hippie and I studied philosophy and music, and I was sort of pushed into it. And 
I realized more and more that it was a really stable, good place to work, and they offer 
a lot of training, and there were a lot of really interesting people there. And, plus, 
you're serving your country. I mean, there's really something good about it.

Everything you do impacts millions of people. You know, taxes can seem rather really 
boring. But, actually, if you make the tax system efficient and you help them to do it 
properly, you impact millions of people. And the money you collect, you know, is 
really the engine for the United States. That's the money that they need to build 
roads and schools, and whatever.