No one is condoning the violence that took place, and the pain and suffering his family must be going through is unimaginable. 

Nevertheless, the event has captured an existing larger problem in society and opened up a larger conversation about technology and the “efficiency gains” narrative that surrounds it. Gains for who? Is it better care or better service and value for the customer? Often, however, efficiency gains just mean more profit for the corporation and less care for customers. 

The United Healthcare CEO killing shines a light on the relationship between business, technology and humanity, and I must say, even I was caught off guard to learn that an AI algorithm and not humans is evaluating and denying health insurance claims. AI is essentially being used to rip people off! Deceitfully allowing these types of companies to get away with it, because they can pass the blame onto the machine for denials and not take any responsibility—a conscious-free way to even bigger profits. 

According to the statistics, multiple major health insurers are also using AI to process claims. United Healthcare, being the largest company, with a whopping $365 billion in revenue last year, has significantly ramped up its AI claims processing usage for even greater profitability. Because AI has a higher rate of denials than when humans review claims.

United Healthcare denied an astonishing 30% of claims last year compared to Kaiser Permanente, for example, another big healthcare insurer that denied just 7% of claims. The “Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO prompts flurry of stories on social media over denied insurance claims,” reports CNN. 

A lawsuit filed in 2023 by the families of former beneficiaries alleges that United Healthcare knew that the AI being used had a 90% error rate but continued to use it anyway because a higher denial rate meant higher profits generated. 

AI and Humanity

Increasingly, the evidence is growing that AI is having an inverse impact and relationship with technological advancement and the advancement of our humanity. Empathy is the key ingredient for intelligence. Without empathy, there can be no authentic way of understanding another person’s side, so making decisions without empathy is not only unintelligent but harmful as well! 

Many in AI coming to grips with their morality keep saying that we should move to build a “better, more dependable AI,” but consider if AI is even a technology worthy of humanity. It has mainly been over-hyped with lots of sizzle but no steak! Sucking all the oxygen out of the investment world at the peril of other technological inventions and innovations. AI is not a one-stop technology solution for everything. That’s stupidity! 

We are spending way too much time on “AI-everything.” So, for those in AI preaching to “save” this version of an unworthy AI, think hard about the level of regulation and trust that will be required to make “safe AI?”  This version seems increasingly unrealistic if it's going to be in the best interest of humanity. 

United CEO Brian Thompson is not the problem; the lack of empathy is, and he didn’t deserve the violence that took his life. So maybe we shouldn’t allow him to die in vain. Let's take a moment here to get unstuck from AI fascination and hype; look at how to go about using base AI technologies to build alternative solutions that can serve humanity best. Or at least not bring harm to it.