Hamill: What does the Sistine Chapel smell like? Don’t ask AI.

I am teaching a college course on tax research this fall. I have done this many times before.

But things are different now. Now, many people rely on generative artificial intelligence, or AI, to research and write tax memos.

A research course must start with a discussion of what is acceptable and not acceptable with the use of AI.

There’s a great video clip that I use as an aid. It is from the 1997 movie “Good Will Hunting.”

Will Hunting is played by a young Matt Damon. Will is a genius who endured a horrible childhood.

Will’s mathematical skills seem patterned after John von Neumann. Like von Neumann, Will is a polymath, one with wide-ranging knowledge and skills.

Organic chemistry problems of his love interest are simple. He embarrasses a bar bully with quotes, including page numbers, from literature.

Will gets in trouble and is sentenced to, among other things, sessions with a therapist. One after another he humiliates them.

At last, Will finds a therapist who is his equal. Sean Maguire, played by Robin Williams, relates to Will’s upbringing and situation in life.

But Will, as is his way, shuts down emotionally and will not engage with Sean. He humiliates Sean by cruelly analyzing a painting Sean has done.

That brings us to the clip. The best part is about four minutes long and is a monologue by Williams.

Williams describes various life experiences, things like love, war and art that Will could pontificate at length from his vast knowledge of information.

But he notes that Will has experienced none of these things himself. He has no emotional connection with any of these topics.

Will could communicate what others have written about these and many other topics. But he cannot communicate what it is like to experience any of these things.

Williams ends up noting that Will is an orphan. He asks if he could understand Will by reading “Oliver Twist.” Does that, he asks, encapsulate you?

Will Hunting is a character developed by Damon and Ben Affleck for their first screenplay. The character was developed before AI.

Yet Will, I believe, is a walking, talking AI machine. Filled with facts to fit any situation. Smarter than any of us.

In the movie, corporations compete for Will’s services. His knowledge fills the needs that they have in their businesses.

There is no discussion about AI in this movie. There is no intent in the script to make us think about the shortcomings of AI.

Back to my tax research. The international accounting firm EY has developed materials that professors can use in their teaching.

One tool is called the Gen AI enhanced professionalism framework. It seeks to explain how AI can, and cannot, be helpful in tax practice.

We often hear how we will all be replaced by AI. People who know little about tax practice pick the tax field as one ripe for machines to replace humans.

They think tax practice is just a bunch of facts spelled out in the law that need to be applied to a situation to develop the optimal answer.

The EY framework includes four areas where people add value to AI. The first is communication and collaboration.

The second is cognitive and analytical skills. The third is ethical and professional considerations.

The last is emotional and interpersonal skills. The framework of this one firm explains cognitive ability and strategic thinking to be human value-added components.

The obvious caution for tax research is to warn about AI hallucinations. Popular press stories of lawyers citing cases that do not exist come up every few months.

But citing a case that does not exist is just irresponsible. Citing any case that you did not read is irresponsible.

Teaching not to do that is easy and really should not be necessary. Life experience as a tax adviser is needed to really understand the limitations of AI.

Tax issues invade people’s lives. An adviser must deal with the emotional, interpersonal, communication, collaboration and ethical issues that invade life.

Williams’ speech in the movie sets the stage for a great dramatic story of transformation and survival. Of humanity.

In this movie, we watch an AI machine in a human body become human. For at least now, in the development of AI, it shows a limitation to AI that we humans can exploit.