Artificial or natural intelligence

During the early years of research the Nobel Prize winner for economics, Danny Kahneman a psychologist, was asked if he studied the brain and natural decision making in order to add to the field of AI. He responded he preferred to examine facets of human stupidity. Referencing how we make decisions in ways we cannot explain he created the discipline of behavioural economics to examine how rules of thumb play an important part in our behaviour.

This human centred view should guide our assessment of AI. Automation of highly repeatable tasks present huge opportunities. Well designed learning methods are already very effective in this area. However, business leaders should be vigilant to the risk of mistaking rational methods of correlation and causation when applying machine learning to more complex fields. Our work in insurance telematics has already highlighted specific scenarios where the correlation of driving behaviour and claims data can be misleading. AI undoubtedly presents enormous opportunity but we must remember the nature of the intelligence its seeks to replace the risks we must guard against.