Artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting almost every industry, and insurance and the insurtech sector on which it depends is no exception, with applications benefiting both customers and insurance firms themselves. From a customer service perspective, the use of chatbots is helping to answer queries in a more efficient manner, providing customers with instant answers around the clock, says Quentin Colmant, CEO of insurtech firm Qover.

One of the most prominent narratives about AGI, or artificial general intelligence, in the popular media these days is the AI doomer narrative. This claims that were in the midst of an arms race to build AGI, propelled by a relatively small number of extremely powerful AI companies like DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Elon Musks xAI (which aims to design an AGI that uncovers truths about the universe by eschewing political correctness). All are backed by billions of dollars: DeepMind says that Microsoft will invest over $100 billion in AI, while OpenAI has thus far received $13 billion from Microsoft, Anthropic has $4 billion in investments from Amazon, and Musk just raised $6 billion for xAI

Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son remarked, during a shareholders meeting, that he believes AI will be 10,000 times smarter than human intelligence 10 years from now. Son also remarked that he saw Softbanks mission to be the evolution of humanity, while also stating he had finally discovered his own purpose in life. During the meeting last week, Son remarked that the company will place its entire focus on pairing robots with artificial intelligence to be utilized in all sorts of mass production, logistics, and autonomous driving.