AI-powered balloons have been photographing Arizona homes for insurance risk assessments

Artificial intelligence-powered
robots lifted by balloons to near the edge of the atmosphere have been
gliding down back to Earth on parachutes taking high-resolution images
of Arizona that could be used to determine insurance rates for
homeowners in the Grand Canyon State. 

Startup firm Near Space Labs has been using stratospheric balloons to lift their AI robots to altitudes as high as 40,000 feet, where they take high-resolution images. According to flight data, several of its balloons have been flying over the state, mostly over the Phoenix area. 

The company did not respond to
multiple requests for comment from the Arizona Mirror asking about the
flights, but the company has spoken to other media in the past about how it is using the technology to assess property risk and other issues. 

The high-resolution images
are taken “near space” in an area of the atmosphere that is above where
commercial airliners fly but below where satellites typically would
be. 

But this new technology also raises new privacy and policy concerns. 

“They may not implicate the same
constitutional concerns,” Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the
American Civil Liberty Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project,
told the Mirror. “But as a policy matter, I think a lot of Americans
would raise their eyebrows at what many would consider wide-area
surveillance.”

Because Near Space Labs is a private
company, certain constitutional concerns raised by the use of wide-area
aerial surveillance, first created for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would not apply to them. In general, public policy around aerial surveillance is stuck in the past, Stanley said. 

And with the advent of new
technologies such as AI, it creates additional challenges that have yet
to be addressed, Stanley said. 

“So, as these powerful new
technologies become available in American society, including to
companies, policy makers need to take a close look to see if they are
taking power away from normal every day people to big rich companies,
and if they are invading privacy in ways that we care about and the
potential for misuse,” Stanley said. 

He said that he could understand if
insurance companies want to find ways to understand risk, “but what are
the limits of what they are doing? What are the potential abuses, side
uses of this data that somebody could misuse?”

‘800,000 drones would with one flight’ 

Insurers have long relied on
airplanes to get aerial photos, and recently have been using drones to
capture photos of homes to assess home risk and value. Recently,
insurers have been using aerial photography to deny insurance claims on
properties that they deem too risky, though in many cases, consumers
have been unaware their homes were even being photographed, according to
reporting by The Wall Street Journal. 

“Our balloons capture what 800,000 drones would with one flight,” Near Space Labs CEO Rema Matevosyan told CNBC last year. 

On its website, Near Space Labs allows for users to “request imagery,” and the site notes that the images are from “Texas,
California, Arizona and other areas we’ve collected to date.” The
Mirror’s request for images from Arizona went unanswered. 

Policymakers in some states have looked to address how insurance companies can use aerial photos to evaluate claims. A proposed bill in California
would have required insurers to tell consumers how to get a copy of
those pictures, which could then be used to dispute changes or cuts. The
bill was held in committee. 

Insurance company Swiss Re is already using Near Space Labs’ technology.  

The Mirror was able to identify nine balloons all using “NSL,” the company’s callsign, flying over Arizona this week. 

They flew over and near the cities of
Green Valley, Sahurita, Benson, Tucson, Gila Bend, Goodyear, Surprise,
Sun City, Sun City West, Surprise, Peoria, Glendale, Phoenix,
Scottsdale, Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe, Sun Lakes, Oro Valley, Queen
Creek, Casa Grande, Eloy, Tolleson, Sundance, Goodyear, Lake Pleasant,
Arizona City, Cave Creek, Paradise Valley, Marana, Black Canyon City,
Anthem and Deer Valley. 

The flights tracked by the Mirror
took place between November 7 and November 12, with multiple balloons
flying over the Phoenix area on November 8 and 9. 

Climate change

Arizona, like many states in the southwest, is facing the on-going impacts of climate change, from increasing deadly heat to bigger and hotter wildfires. 

The impact of climate change is
something that insurers have been paying attention to and another key
element of Near Space Labs work. The company has received grant money
from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to address “aerial imaging” of
properties after severe weather events that have worsened due to climate
change. 

Increasing wildfires spurred on by the droughts resulting from climate change has led insurers to stop offering new homeowner policies in states like California, which have been hit hard by devastating wildfires over the past decade. Eight other states have seen similar issues with major insurers pulling out of providing homeowners insurance. 

The New York-based company, which raised $20 million in Series B funding this year, has said in interviews
that it plans to help underserved communities that are impacted by
climate change. Supporters of the technology note that the robots have
zero emissions and are greener than their satellite counterparts. 

Stanley said that understanding the impacts of climate change are important, especially for insurers who are impacted by major climate events, but there is concern about policy keeping up with the evolving technology. 

“This is not a liberal or
conservative issue,” Stanley said. “These are also issues about ordinary
people and about how powerful tech companies can leverage these new
technologies over us.”