Insurers Want to Know How Many Steps You Took Today

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.