What if our industry’s favorite word—reasoning—is mostly a magic trick?
Dr. Andrew Clark, Monitaur
October 2025 | What's new this month
Metaphysics and modern AI: What is thinking? - Series Introduction
This episode is the intro to a special project by The AI Fundamentalists’ hosts and friends. We hope you're ready for a metaphysics mini‑series to escape the hype. Explore what thinking and reasoning really mean and how those definitions should shape AI research.
Join us for thought-provoking discussions as we tackle basic questions: What is metaphysics and its relevance to AI? What constitutes reality? What defines thinking? How do we understand time? And perhaps most importantly, should AI systems attempt to "think," or are we approaching the entire concept incorrectly?
Insurers are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) systems across operations, including underwriting policies, pricing, claims processing, fraud detection and customer service. But with the broad use and deployment of automated decision-making technology comes heightened scrutiny. Regulators, consumer advocates and courts are sharpening their focus on fairness, transparency and accountability in AI-driven insurance decisions.
Governance and underwriting in the age of AI: a dual challenge for insurers We have moved past the point where AI is the ‘next big thing' for the insurance industry. The shift from theoretical promise to practical deployment has already taken place; from underwriting and pricing to claims handling and customer service, AI tools are being deployed to streamline operations, enhance decision-making, and unlock new efficiencies. But as insurers embrace these technologies, they face a dual challenge: firstly, managing their own use of AI in an increasingly fragmented regulatory landscape; and secondly, underwriting the risks associated with AI adoption by policyholders (and doing so profitably). This article sets out the regulatory landscape for insurers as users of AI, examines the risk profile in connection with insurers' use of AI tools in their businesses and considers the implications for liability insurers underwriting AI-related risks.
EIOPA publishes Opinion on AI governance and risk management The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) today published an Opinion addressed to national supervisors to clarify the key principles and requirements in insurance-sector legislation for the use and supervision of AI systems. The Opinion follows a risk-based and proportionate approach in order to reach a balance between the benefits and risks of AI systems.
Pennsylvania lawmakers are weighing new legislation that would impose transparency and accountability requirements on insurers, hospitals and clinics that use artificial intelligence (AI) in their operations.
House Bill 1925, introduced on Oct. 6, aims to ensure that AI systems used in insurance and healthcare do not violate the state's anti-discrimination laws and that human oversight remains central to decision-making. Under the bill, final determinations involving individuals, such as claims, coverage or medical assessments, must be made by a human reviewer based on an individualized assessment.
Despite the rapid rise of artificial intelligence in the insurance sector, along with claims of widespread errors and even discrimination by algorithms, A.I. is becoming vital to the industry – but insureds will be protected by existing statutes, insurance advocates told Florida lawmakers Tuesday. “If a practice is prohibited for a human to do on behalf of an insurance company, it is prohibited for A.I. to do,” said Paul Martin, vice president of state affairs for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. “Artificial intelligence is not an end run for insurance companies around a state’s statutes or its regulations.”
States ramped up efforts to regulate artificial intelligence in health care this year, moving from exploratory debates to concrete legislation. Lawmakers in 46 states introduced more than 250 bills addressing AI’s role in health care. Seventeen states enacted 27 of those measures, with three more awaiting California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) signature, according to consulting firm Manatt. It is a sharp shift from previous years, when only a handful of state AI bills touched on health care — and most of those simply set up study commissions. Analysts expect the momentum to continue as lawmakers gain a clearer sense of the technology’s potential and risks.
Impact & Society
New Economist Impact report finds AI is reshaping insurance - gradually Insurance leaders are beginning to see artificial intelligence (AI) move from hype to real-world impact, according to a new report from Economist Impact and sponsored by SAS. The research finds that emerging technologies such as generative AI haven't yet transformed the industry, but they are demonstrating gains in productivity. And insurance leaders see a major role in particular for agentic AI – autonomous systems capable of performing even complex tasks almost independently – suggesting that the insurance firm of the near future might feature a hybrid workforce in which human agents and AI agents work hand-in-hand on tasks such as underwriting, product development, claims processing and more.
Taking a page from the private insurance industry’s playbook, the Trump administration will launch a program next year to find out how much money an artificial intelligence algorithm could save the federal government by denying care to Medicare patients. The pilot program, designed to weed out wasteful, “low-value” services, amounts to a federal expansion of an unpopular process called prior authorization, which requires patients or someone on their medical team to seek insurance approval before proceeding with certain procedures, tests, and prescriptions. It will affect Medicare patients, and the doctors and hospitals who care for them, in Arizona, Ohio, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington, starting Jan. 1 and running through 2031.
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