Tencent-backed online lender WeBank and reinsurance giant Swiss Re’s Beijing branch have signed a memorandum of understanding on joint research on the application of federated learning in reinsurance. The cooperation will focus on federated learning, one of the latest developments in the world of artificial intelligence. The two parties will work together to explore how technology can help address the challenges imposed by data silos, further boosting the development of the insurance industry. A data silo is where only one group in an organization can access a set or source of data, which will cause wasted resources, inhibited productivity and inefficiency. Federated learning is an encrypted and distributed machine learning approach which enables training for joint machine learning on decentralized data, wherein no data transmission is required for participants. This new approach builds training models that are in compliance with data security requirements enhancing the outcome of machine learning. It is expected to form the basis of the next generation of AI-powered networks.
Swiss Re’s Beijing branch has partnered with Tencent-backed WeBank to research the applications of AI in the reinsurance industry. The research will focus specifically on federated learning and how it can be used to solve the inefficiency of data silos. Previously, data silos were only accessible by one party at a time, which wastes resources and limits productivity.