
Insurers Want to Know How Many Steps You Took Today - howard941
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/opinion/insurance-ai.html
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chrisplotz
Each insurable loss like a car accident, house fire or heart disease, has two
contributors: inherent risk, and behavior. (Inherent risk is risk you can do
nothing about - age, gender, genes).

To the degree that AI can help reduce or measure behavioral risk, it's not
only a good idea but only fair. I think most people would admit pricing
insurance based on people's behavior is fair. They certainly do not like the
idea of paying for others' right to drive fast and stop short. AI is a tool
that is accelerating this trend.

All of the scary things mentioned in the article actually have nothing to do
with AI, but discrimination based on inherent risks. Pricing insurance on ZIP
certainly does not require AI. And while genes are a medical factor, getting
old is the #1 inherent medical risk.

Is it fair to price on these things? For a house, ZIP makes sense - wildfire
risk differs. But it is likewise undeniable that the old will cost more to
care for than the relatively young. Debating AI won't help - the real debate
is about whether we as a society are willing to protect people from the
inherent risks of getting old, childbirth, cancer, living in a floodplain or
wildfire zone, or even growing up in a poor area. We don't really have an
honest debate about that.

