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Yes. AI is the marketing name for complex algorithms that nobody really know how they work or why they do what they do. This will ruin countless lives.

• nerdponx 10y ago
  What? no. "AI" is the marketing name for "machine learning, now with 100% more chat bots". Most "machine learning" is not "complex algorithms". It's mostly just support vector machines, clustering algorithms, and some off-the-shelf neural networks whose behavior is well understood. Whether that's the case here isn't clear, but a project like DeepMind is not representative of AI in the wild. If it does somehow manage to ruin countless lives, it won't be because of AI. I don't think AI did anything at all for me when I signed up; I didn't even use a chatbot, I just answered the same questions I answered on every other insurance quote, and happened to get a better price with sweeter terms than I got at any other insurer. It also didn't do anything for me when I filed a claim: they have a clearly-defined policy like any other insurer, and I worked directly with a (human) agent to get my claim resolved. The AI stuff is a marketing gimmick. If it ruins any lives at all, it'll be because the company is selling insurance for a fixed, below-market rate. But Dan Ariely isn't stupid, and I assume they'll at least be able to honor their existing contracts in the event of some kind of widespread catastrophe.