Chairperson's Corner

By Daniel Klein

Risk Management, May 2024

For this edition of the “Chairperson’s Corner,” I delegated to AI the humble task of communicating with us humans. What could possibly go wrong?

For those of you who are regular users of AI interfaces such as ChatGPT, you may shrug off this exercise as just a product of training data and some clever prompting. So let me clarify that I (Daniel) take the credit for writing this article. After investing some thought and details into the prompting, I pretty much captured the key themes I wanted to address. The AI generated output was just the starting point, but by the end of the writing process nearly all these words are my own. So how much value did AI add?

Including AI in an actuary’s toolkit for a plethora of actuarial end-products such as the genesis of an article or building understanding of a complex topic is becoming commonplace and perhaps acceptable. While we know this can introduce a slew of risks, such as unintended biases seeping into one’s work product to outright, yet unintended, plagiarism, it is incumbent on actuaries to complete their due diligence before publishing any work.

For 2024 we continue our goal of enhancing content delivery through various channels, from webcasts to newsletter articles to sponsored research. This year you will also see some amazing shifts in our offerings that are designed to engage you in novel ways and ultimately help build practical skills for your career. One such example are the book club meetings that JRMS is engaged in where participants review and discuss groundbreaking books that examine risk management from various angles.

One fantastic opportunity I want to announce is a collaborative writing workshop for section members who are interested in improving their writing skills. The workshops will be facilitated by Dave Ingram and Marc Altschull and will be held in eight monthly Zoom sessions beginning in May. Each session will tackle one or more specific skills that are useful to writers. The primary objectives of the workshop will be to develop your ability to make specific improvements to what you write and to increase your self confidence in your own writing capabilities. Participants will work over the course of the workshop to produce an article that may be published in a publication such as Risk Management newsletter and other types of writing will be covered including actuarial reports and reports to the board. Details for signing up are available on the SOA website.

Dave is a prolific writer for actuarial and other insurance publications and Marc has been the editor of a section newsletter. Currently, Dave serves on the SOA Board and Marc is on the JRMS council. Their primary focus for the workshop will be on writing about risk management topics. For any questions about the program, you can contact them at daveingram@optonline.net or Marc.Altschull@fglife.com.

I strongly encourage all our members to explore the amazing professional development opportunities we have for you. The JRMS also welcomes and values your active contribution, whether it's suggesting topics for future webcasts, volunteering to write articles, or participating in relevant research and best practices.

Warm regards,

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the newsletter editors, or the respective authors’ employers.

Daniel Klein, FSA, FCIA, CFA, is the chair of the Joint Risk Management Section Council and head of actuarial at crypto-native insurance marketplace Nayms. He can be reached at daniel.klein.jrms@gmail.com.