Thu 09 May 2024 - Within modern society, artificial intelligence has long been a part of human innovation. Its increased prevalence in recent years has rocked society and captivated global interest.
Many are now suggesting the growth of AI is heading towards an inflection point. It could be capable of producing a technological renaissance akin to the rise of the internet or the splitting of the atom.
But what does the rise of AI mean for the actuarial and wider financial services sector? Our new thought leadership webinar series addresses this question. We draw on expertise from the worlds of policy, science, academia, and financial services to demystify AI and its growing role in society. We tackle the big debates around AI ethics and regulation and set out the work the IFoA is doing in this space.
In the third event of the series, we are joined by IAA President Charles Cowling, who will lead a discussion on:
Chair
Charles Cowling began his tenure as President of the International Actuarial Association in January 2024. He has designated AI to be one of the key themes of his presidential term. Alongside this role, he also serves as Chief Actuary for Mercer.
Charles has served on 5 occasions on the IFoA Council (total of 16 years since 2003) and in numerous other roles, including chairmanship of 6 different boards or groups. In 2021, he was given the President’s Award for his contributions to the actuarial profession. He has also served in several roles with the Worshipful Company of Actuaries, Pensions Committee of the Actuarial Association of Europe, Association of Consulting Actuaries, and Pensions Policy Institute. He has authored several publications and presented at numerous conferences in the UK and across the world.
Bogdan Tautan, co-Vice Chair for the Artificial Intelligence and Data Science working group at the Actuarial Association of Europe
Bogdan Tautan has a background in economic cybernetics and actuarial sciences, currently active as Reinsurance and Capital Analyst at Achmea Reinsurance in the Netherlands. His role centres around managing and designing risk transfer solutions. He also leads programmes aimed at enhancing organisational efficiency through the refinement of actuarial quantitative tooling, data, and IT infrastructures.
As a qualified actuary, acknowledging the importance of contributing to the profession’s progress, he engages in committees and working groups at national and international levels. This involves membership in the actuarial data science and professionalism committees at the Royal Dutch Actuarial Association.
Bogdan has the role of co-Vice Chair for the Artificial Intelligence and Data Science working group at the Actuarial Association of Europe. He is a member of the professionalism committee, task force on AI, and data analytics virtual forum as part of activities conducted by the International Actuarial Association.
Chief Actuary at Old Mutual Insure
Ron Richman is Chief Actuary at Old Mutual Insure, where he is responsible for oversight of all actuarial activities in the OMI Group. Ron is a Fellow of the IFoA and the Actuarial Society of South Africa. He holds practicing certificates in short term insurance and life insurance from ASSA. Ron also has a Masters of Philosophy in Actuarial Science, with distinction, from the University of Cape Town.
He chairs the Actuarial Society of South Africa’s climate change committee and is the vice chair of the ASTIN board. Ron has a keen professional interest in the application of AI techniques to actuarial work and has published several papers demonstrating how this can be done.
Fei is a Senior Lecturer in Risk and Actuaries Studies and Lead - Data and AI Tech at UNSW Business AI Lab. She received her BSc. in Mathematics from Xiamen University, MPhil in Actuarial Science from the University of Hong Kong, and PhD in Actuarial Studies from the Australian National University. Before joining UNSW, she was a faculty member at the Australian National University.
Fei's research focuses on Ethical AI (and non-AI) and Data Science for Insurance. In particular, she studies insurance discrimination and pricing fairness in the context of AI (and non-AI). She also develops statistical and machine learning methods for various actuarial applications, including customer churn modeling, mortality modeling, macroeconomic forecasting using Big Data, and general insurance pricing. She has published in top-tier actuarial journals and received the Carol Dolan Actuaries Summit Prize and ASTIN Colloquium Best Paper Award for her research on anti-discrimination insurance pricing. She was a recipient of the Actuaries Institute's Volunteer of the Year Award in the Spirit of Volunteering category and received the UNSW Business School SDG Research Impact Award in 2023.
Fei teaches actuarial data science and statistical machine learning at UNSW. By collaborating with industry partners, she incorporates contemporary industry challenges into the course syllabus to offer a unique industry-engaging experience for students via Sandbox Projects. Her educational excellence has been recognized by winning the UNSW John Prescott Award for Outstanding Teaching Innovation (2022), ANU Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence in the Early Career Category (2018) and ANU College of Business and Economics Award for Teaching Excellence in the Early Career Category (2017). Fei is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE (SFHEA).
11 March: Watch the recording - Artificial intelligence thought leadership series: keynote session
11 April: Watch the recording - Artificial intelligence thought leadership series: ethics and regulation