He urged people to be careful about what information they share online
Martin Lewis has urged people to be careful about what details they are sharing online. He warned information about your bank statements could fall into the wrong hands if you are not careful.
He was asked on his BBC podcast about when he would recommend using AI to help with your finances. The consumer expert said the new tech is great for certain money tasks, but you there are some instances where you won’t want to rely on it too heavily.
He said a key factor is to be sure that AI is using reliable sources. Mr Lewis said: “When it comes to what you do with your money, you really do need a trusted source.”
‘There is a risk’
He pointed to three cases where he would be cautious in using AI. Mr Lewis warned: “I definitely wouldn’t use it to tell me what I should invest in.
“I definitely wouldn’t use it for tax benefits or pension decisions without checking, and I definitely wouldn’t, unless I knew it was a locked-in, secure environment, upload my entire financial life, because I think there is a risk of access to scammers.”
He was making the comments in response to a question from someone who had used AI to go over their bank statements, to help with budgeting. Mr Lewis urged caution in handing over this information.
He told AI users to think about what details you are handing over, so you don’t give it any data that “either could be used to defraud you or details you wouldn’t want to go anywhere else”.
‘Absolutely brilliant’
The reality is that when you use AI, the information you give it is used to train future AI, so your information is not private. However, there are some versions of AI tools where your prompts are not used to train future tools.
Nonetheless, AI thrives when analysing numbers to identify trends. Mr Lewis said: “For budgeting, spotting patterns, spotting things that you’re doing that you wouldn’t necessarily notice that you’re doing, it will be absolutely brilliant.”
Another good use for AI is “really, really useful”, according to Mr Lewis, is to digest a lengthy policy document. He said it may be a useful aid to comb through your travel insurance terms and conditions.
You can then check its findings for yourself, by asking it to point you to the section of the document where it got the information from. Another thing to consider in that there are different versions of AI tools, which will provide a varying quality of response.
‘Massive difference’
Mr Lewis told listeners: “There is a massive difference between the answers you get on different levels of AI. Most people are on the quick or the instant version, and if you’re on the quick and the instant version, that is designed to give you a quick, instant, may I say somewhat flippant answer.”
For more complex tasks, premium tiers can potentially provider much more precision. The consumer champion said: “If you start to go up to your medium level or even your pro level, if you have access to it, as some people will have through work, the entire research base and what it’s checking and cross-checking itself is much, much more rigid.
“And certainly if you’re doing financial stuff, you want to be on the highest level that you can possibly be on if you’re doing important financial stuff.”
