Description: A California homeowner's insurance policy was reportedly not renewed after CSAA relied on aerial imagery, purportedly analyzed by an AI system, to assess the roof as having reached the end of its life. The homeowner, Cindy Picos, reportedly commissioned an independent inspection suggesting the roof had a decade of remaining life, but CSAA declined to reverse the decision. The insurer reportedly did not provide the imagery for review.
Editor Notes: The article was published on 04/06/2024 and states that Cindy Picos was dropped by her insurer "last month," indicating the primary harm likely occurred in March 2024. Additional cases cited occurred between 2022 and early 2024, but the Picos case is the focal event. Refer as well to Incident 1083, which is a variant of this focusing on Texas homeowners. This incident ID was created 05/31/2025.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Vexcel Group and Unspecified developer of aerial imagery risk analysis system developed an AI system deployed by CSAA Insurance Group, which harmed Homeowners affected by AI-assisted insurance nonrenewals , Homeowners and Cindy Picos.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Algorithmic roof condition classification and AI-assisted aerial imagery risk assessment
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1082
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2024-04-06
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
Cindy Picos was dropped by her home insurer last month. The reason: aerial photos of her roof, which her insurer refused to let her see.
"I thought they had the wrong house," said Picos, who lives in northern California. "Our roof is in fin…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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