David Shaw on AI in underwriting
From Innovation, AI & the Future of Life Insurance | David Shaw · · Five[Minutes]
“We're bringing AI to underwriting. Now, when I say we as an industry, right? We're bringing AI to that quarterback coach. It's not replacing the human, but it's driving a lot. It reads those APS statements. Before we ship that to a lower cost offshore environment, now AI can read that for us and provide that information and that assist.”
On , David Shaw, Founder at D.E. Shaw, spoke about AI in underwriting during Innovation, AI & the Future of Life Insurance | David Shaw on Five[Minutes].
About David Shaw
David Shaw, founder of D.E. Shaw Research, has been active in multiple fields, including computational biology, private lending, and community radio. In May 2025, he spoke at a Livewire Radio event in Portland, describing the show as "special" and "awesome right here," and asked the audience to make contributions because "this place is special." On his podcast, "Burn Your Boats Wealth Podcast," Shaw discussed market volatility in April 2025, stating that wealthy individuals he met at a mastermind group "didn't hear the word tariffs" or "fear" and emphasized that "there is a behavioral cost to being a panicker." In a March 2025 episode, he argued that private lending is less risky than commonly perceived, saying "private lenders very, very rarely experience a full default on behalf of a borrower." Shaw also continues to be recognized for his work in computational biology. In December 2023, he received the SC23 Test of Time Award for his team's work on the Anton supercomputer, which enabled millisecond-scale molecular dynamics simulations. During the award talk, he noted that the machine's specialized hardware "dramatically increased the speed of MD calculations" and that the team's long-term goal is "to understand molecular mechanisms deeply enough to design effective drugs." He has previously stated that the most significant source of error in such simulations is "inaccuracies in the force field" and that "long MD simulations" may or may not accelerate drug development, calling that question "highly speculative."