California Tax Department Keeps GenAI Use at Call Center (1)

California’s sales tax department will continue using generative artificial intelligence to help respond to taxpayers using its call center or live online chat, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said on Tuesday.

The governor said his office reached an agreement with SymSoft Solutions LLC using a next-generation AI assistant developed by Anthropic, building on a pilot project over the past 10 months testing its use at the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. SymSoft will receive up to $444,600 under the one-year contract.

• The generative AI assistant, called Claude, is used to search more than 16,000 pages ...