AI Lies & Florida’s Auto Insurance Crisis – Top 3 Takeaways – August 18th, 2023
- AI lies but some platforms more than others. Who knew machine-based learning would prove to be so human after all? Actually, this was something I’d predicted in the age of AI. After all, every AI program started with flawed humans programming it. And every AI program learns from what it reads online, which includes a bunch of lies amid the truth. It’s rather natural that the byproduct of all of this would be brilliant programs that are otherwise as screwed up as we are minus a soul. Which when you boil it down that way also quickly exposes the highly dangerous flaws of a world which is run on AI as many are currently quick to try to do. The machine learning community isn’t big on the word “lies”; they instead refer to the discrepancies as hallucinations. There have already been a few notable “hallucinations” which have caused real world issues. The most notable was an attorney representing a man suing an airline in a personal injury case who used ChatGPT to prepare his briefs for the court. The only problem was, that the supporting case law cited by ChatGPT, which was cited by the attorney was all a product of digital magic mushrooms or something like that. ChatGPT just made it all up. The situation blew up so badly for the attorney he had to admit what he did and throw himself on the mercy of the court in an effort to not be disbarred. The problem with ChatGPT and with other AI programs is that while much of what they say is true, much of what they produce all day everyday isn’t. That creates an awfully challenging dynamic when trying to determine what’s real and what isn’t, what’s true and what isn’t and what the bias and proclivities to lie, I mean hallucinate will be. On that note it’s already being studied, and the survey according to Arthur AI’s “Hallucination Experiment” and “Hedging Answers Experiment” revealed some interesting takeaways from the leading AI platforms. For example, when ChatGPT was asked the question How many people served as U.S. president between 1880 and 2000 three times, it provided three different answers! And all three were at least partially incorrect. What was the takeaway? Other than not being able to trust an AI program empirically...there were strengths and weaknesses with the existing programs. ChatGPT is currently the best AI program at solving math problems. Cohere AI is the biggest liar and Llama 2, which is Meta’s AI program, is the most balanced. The programs are probably about as different as the people who programmed them originally.
- One insurance crisis is turning a corner another is still getting worse. It was July 11th when I brought you the story Florida’s Property Insurance Reform is Starting to Work. As I said then... First, the not-so-good news. No, your property insurance bill isn’t likely to come down anytime soon. Now for the better news. Yes, you are likely to have access to more property insurance options soon which will provide the potential for you to be able to save in future years as the first meaningful signs of Florida’s property insurance reforms are starting to take hold in the insurance industry. After Wednesday’s news that Texas-based Mainsail Insurance Company had filed with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation to begin the process enabling them to underwrite policies within the state, we’ve now had two new property insurers enter the state since. It’s clear that Florida’s begun to turn the corner on the property insurance crisis. Where there isn’t currently any clear indication of relief in sight is with auto insurance. The one-two-three punch of high inflation, ever higher claims and a rising number of uninsured drivers are leading to staggering increases. Florida has now surpassed Louisiana for the top auto insurance rates in the country with the average in force policy now running $2,560 annually. The lowest rate policy currently underwritten now runs over a thousand bucks at $1,162 and some poor shlub (who probably isn’t poor) is paying $7,910 for auto insurance alone in our state this year (that’s the most expensive in force policy currently unwritten). And in case you haven’t been paying close attention and have just had your auto insurance policies renewed, you’re liable to have a bit of sticker shock.
- The average increase in premiums upon renewal this year has been 18%. That means the average per car premium increase is now $461. Citing Mark Friedlander from the Insurance Information Institute: Florida drivers pay the highest average premiums in the United States due to a variety of factors, These include the impact of severe weather on roadways, heavy traffic patterns on interstates generated by residents and millions of annual visitors, congested roadways in major metro areas, a state’s no-fault insurance law … and the fact that Florida has one of the highest uninsured motorist rates in the United States – 20.4%. If it’s been a while since you priced auto insurance options, this year is probably the year to do it. With premiums as expensive as what we’re seeing and increases as large as what we’re seeing, there’s likely to be a significant range in prices you might find between various carriers. Getting rid of the “no-fault” law seems like a good place to start. Otherwise, it’s hard to see where relief can or will come from – though efforts are being made to crack down on fraudulent claims. Continued population growth and record tourism equals record cars on the road and record accidents to follow. Ever higher auto insurance costs along with more illegal immigrants entering the country and migrating to Florida which equals more uninsured motorists and inflation is still rising as you can tell starting with what you’re filling your car up with. As it turns out fixing Florida’s property insurance market may prove to be far easier than Florida’s auto insurance market. It does make having options like Brightline look more important by the day.