Opinion: Machine learning – the art of the possible

Using an analogy involving cats and dogs Tom Murphy, co-founder and chief technology officer of Machine Learning Programs, explains machine learning, why it matters and how it can help brokers.

As automation ramps up and aggregators grow, consumers are looking for quick insurance covers. Automated risk selection is required, but traditional computer programming is not up to the task.

For years the insurance industry has tried to describe what a good risk looks like.

We make our best attempt at it and accept that it’s a hard thing to explain conclusively to a computer. We can recognise bad risks when we see them, but concretely describing them is hard. This is why underwriters and