Artificial Intelligence Is Replacing Humans At This Japanese Company

The year of AI has well and truly begun, it seems. An insurance company in Japan announced that it will lay off more than 30 employees and replace them with an artificial intelligence system. The technology will be based on IBM's (ibm) Watson Explorer, which is described as having "cognitive technology that can think like a human," reports the Guardian. Japan's Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance said the new system will take over from its human counterparts by calculating policy payouts. The company said it hopes the AI will be 30% more productive and aims to see investment costs recouped within two years.