Insurance Regulators Wrestle With AI Supervision

News July 19, 2023 at 02:03 PM
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State insurance regulators have drafted rules for how insurers use artificial intelligence.

The Innovation Cybersecurity and Technology Committee, an arm of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, posted a draft AI model bulletin on the NAIC's website Monday.

The committee says that insurers must take responsibility for the actions of their own AI-based systems and that they also must monitor their vendors' AI systems.

When an insurer is working with an outside organization that has developed or deployed an AI system that affects consumers, the insurer must show how it verifies that the systems "are designed to meet the legal standards imposed on the insurer itself," according to the draft model.

What It Means

State regulators hope insurers can keep AI systems from making unfair and possibly discriminatory decisions about insurance.

The NAIC

The U.S. federal government leaves most regulation of insurance to the states.

The NAIC is a Kansas City, Missouri-based group for state insurance regulators. It does not directly set state laws or regulations, but states often start with NAIC models when developing their own rules.

THE NAIC adopted AI principles in 2020, in response to concerns about AI-driven discrimination.

The NAIC formed the innovation committee in 2021.

The Draft Bulletin

The draft bulletin includes sections on topics such as definitions, risk management and regulatory oversight as well as monitoring of outside parties' AI systems.

In the definitions section for example, the NAIC committee defines "artificial intelligence" as "a term used to describe machine-based systems designed to simulate human intelligence to perform tasks, such as analysis and decision-making, given a set of human-defined objectives."

"The draft model bulletin is intended to be risk-based rather than prescriptive acknowledging that insurers will be able to demonstrate their compliance with applicable laws through various means," according to a note about the draft by Paige Waters and Stephanie O'Neill Macro, attorneys at Locke Lord.

Credit: peshkov/Adobe Stock

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