Center for Technological Responsibility, Reimagination and Redesign

The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) is the agency responsible for regulating financial services and products sold in New York and enforcing the New York State laws which apply to their providers. The agency recently issued a proposed circular letter regarding the use of artificial intelligence and consumer data in insurance and has requested public feedback on its contents. It builds on a previous, much vaguer circular letter issued in 2019, which pertains only to life insurance providers.

Life insurance is one of the oldest and most carefully regulated industries in America, and it is one of many in the midst of upheaval due to “big data” and advances in machine learning. These changes have sparked concerns about algorithmic discrimination, and rightly so, considering the industry’s sordid history.