View the full video (in Chinese) here.
LSI in the News
Posted on 15 Sep 2017 by NCTECHNOLOGY.ORG
2017 NC Tech Awards
Lapetus Solutions has been named a Finalist in the Innovative Product category of the 2017 NC Tech Awards, North Carolina's annual statewide awards program recognizing excellence in the tech sector.
The NC Tech Awards is North Carolina’s largest and most prestigious statewide technology awards program, which culminates in the NC Tech Awards Gala on November 9, 2017 at the Durham Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 15 Sep 2017 by HUFFINGTONPOST.COM
InsurTech for Life Insurance: Selfie Quote
In conversation with Blair Baldwin, Co-Founder /CEO, Quilt: Quilt offers a selfie quote:
What is a “selfie quote”?
Blair Baldwin: When we started Quilt, we did a lot of market research into where the coverage gaps are for young people. We didn’t expect most millennials to have life insurance obviously, but we were really shocked at how few were covered among those who really need insurance, like parents, homeowners, and people with cosigners for their student loans. So it’s pretty obvious that traditional insurance companies haven’t done a great job of reaching young people.
We also found that millennials vastly overestimate how much a term policy costs. The average guess in our survey was $107 a month, which is several times more expensive than what most will actually pay in that age bracket.
The selfie quote is a great opportunity to engage a younger audience, but more importantly, to show people how affordable life insurance can be. Our mission as a company is to make insurance radically simple and approachable, and it doesn’t get much simpler than this.
Q: How does the ‘selfie quote’ work?
BB: A lot of factors go into a life insurance quote, but it turns out three things are enough to get a very good estimate - age, gender, and body mass index, or BMI. It just so happens that those are three things show in a person’s face, so a photo is all it takes. Just snap a pic with your phone and the computers handle the rest. The actual facial analytics is powered by a company called Lapetus Solutions. Their tech goes to work analyzing the picture, and the results are plugged into our model to generate a quote, all within a couple seconds.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 05 Sep 2017 by INSNERDS.COM
Profiles In Risk – Episode 29: The People of Plug and Play
I was very fortunate to be able to spend a few days at Plug and Play in Silicon Valley. My company was part of the lucky cohort that was invited to pitch. Here is a description of Plug and Play:
Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. We connect startups to corporations, and invest in over 100 companies every year.
We have 22 locations across the world with success stories that include PayPal, Dropbox, SoundHound, and Lending Club.
The insurance silo is one of the largest and fastest growing in the Plug and Play ecosystem. I was so impressed with what these special startups are doing in the insurance sphere that I decided to pull out my phone and speak to a few of them.
In this episode of Profiles in Risk you will meet:
Janet Anderson – Janet is the CMO of Lapetus Solutions, a company whose motive is the prediction of life events. I was able to get an estimate that my life expectancy could be into the eighties, which was encouraging since I predicted I wouldn’t last past my fifties.
Read the full article and listen the podcast here.
Posted on 18 Aug 2017 by NIKKEI
U.S. insurance companies using AI client interfaces to make quotes and payment convenient
“I just had to answer some easy questions on my smartphone and I’d signed up for insurance in less than 5 minutes. It was easy.” A New Yorker in his 30s, inspired to sign up for property insurance by his recent purchase of a high-end bicycle, described his experience with insurance startup Lemonade.
The New York-based startup, founded in 2015, uses an AI for its customer interface. Everything from the sign up process to paying out claims is done through a smartphone app.
Although the United States insurance industry, like Japan’s, has seen a decline in its customer base that’s particularly pronounced among young people, more than 80% of Lemonade’s clients are 44 or younger. The absence of sales pressure and in-person meetings has been well-received. The company has expansion plans beyond its current footprint in four U.S. states.
The U.S. is seeing an increase in “insurtech” (a neologism made by combining “insurance” and “technology”) businesses, which follow in the technology-embracing footsteps of the lending and financial payment industries.
The selling point is using AI and big data to speed up the insurance quote and claims payment processes. Insurance products that keep both the sign-up process and the costs to a minimum are gaining attention, particularly from young people.
One firm after another is opening with the goal of advancing technological innovation in existing insurance companies. “A look at your face is enough to know how long you’ll live.” That sounds like face- reading fortunetelling, but is in reality a technology developed by Lapetus. Using a single picture of a face, it claims to be able to estimate sex, age, BMI, and life expectancy. It works by using machine learning-trained computer to analyze 100 different facial markers from the image.
An insurance company in the United States has begun using Lapetus’s facial photograph analysis technology to produce rough estimates of life insurance premium payments. The technology can be used to analyze whether the health history and other data supplied by potential customers is accurate.
The company’s founder Karl Ricanek emphasizes that his company’s technology holds costs and premiums down, allowing more people to sign up for insurance.
Galaxy AI, which was founded in 2015, fixed its sights on the cumbersome auto insurance claim reimbursement process. Send a picture of the accident via an app, and it returns a payment estimate in only a few minutes. Claim approvals which used to take nearly a month could be completed in days.
Galaxy AI cofounder Jasjit Maggu says many insurance companies became interested after just seeing the prototype. The company is in discussions to implement its technology with insurance companies in several Asian countries, including in Japan.
Large insurance companies are also focusing on incorporating the latest technology. Cigna, one of the five largest health insurance firms in the United States, is making efforts to improve its AI-powered services. In January of this year it teamed up with medical start-up Prognos, which aims to create a disease-prevention service using an AI it developed to make early diagnoses and help with health maintenance.
These collaborations, established by companies teaming up with startups to create new services, are reminiscent of how the banking industry has worked with firms that have experience with the blockchain technology and digital currencies. Throughout the world, the ongoing integration of IT into every kind of finance-related field continues.
This is a translation of an original article published on August 18, 2017 on the morning edition of The Nikkei
Read the original article (in Japanese) here.
Posted on 14 Aug 2017 by PYMNTS
The Magic Of Selfies In Life Insurance
“People think the process is too onerous and the product is too expensive.”
That, Legal & General Insurance EVP James Galli told Karen Webster in this week’s TopicTBD discussion, is the perception of getting a life insurance policy. It’s a fact that Legal & General America (LGA) knows for sure — it’s part of the 180-year-old worldwide Legal & General Group that has been in the business of providing life insurance for American families for the last six-and-a-half decades.
The major impediment, Galli noted, isn’t that life insurance isn‘t something that consumers want — they do, particularly as they enter their 30s, settle down and begin forming families. But, “when we think about what is on people’s minds and what holds people back, it’s that they don’t know how much coverage they need, or what coverage they need, or how much it will cost. So they conclude that it costs too much and must be a very difficult process.”
On costs, he notes, the consumers are often wrong — and on average are assuming term life insurance costs 200 to 300 times more than it actually does. On process, though, LGA thought that there was room for innovation.
“We are part of a very innovative firm that is really striving to create new, different and engaging ways to bring customers in and keep them with us around the world. In the U.S., we were looking at some of the things that were happening in the property and casualty insurance arena and observed that life insurance was a little bit behind. We felt we could do something about that,” Galli said.
And what they could do about that, Galli told Webster, was work in partnership with Lapetus Solutions and leverage Lapetus’ facial analytics technology to create a better process for starting a conversation about life insurance with consumers:
The selfie.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 13 Aug 2017 by HOW ON EARTH RADIO
Mortality Trends in America / Life Expectancy in America
This week on How on Earth we look at the scientific research into the lifespans of Americans.
Mortality trends in America (start time 4:05): We speak with Andrea Tilstra, who co-authored a recent paper on mortality trends in America. Tilstra is a co-author of a recent study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. Her team’s paper is titled “Explaining recent mortality trends among younger and middle-aged White Americans.”
Life expectancy in America (start time 12:40): Next, we speak with Jay Olshansky, who ten years ago first predicted the recently observed drop in life expectancy in America. Olshansky is a world renowned expert in the Science of Aging. As for his crystal ball – well, it has little to do with magic, and more to do with his understanding about how our cells work, and how they age. It also helps that he understands statistics.
Listen to the show here.
Posted on 9 Aug 2017 by NEWSWEEK
Here's what Donald Trump may look like after his stressful presidency
Donald Trump, the oldest president at the time of entering the Oval Office, will leave the White House undeniably having aged from when he was first sworn into office at 71 years old.
The president may move with more of a limp after walking through the stretching halls of the White House for four or eight years. The swing in his hips when playing golf at his luxury properties will likely have diminished. He may feel aches in his wrist from time to time as he signs major legislation and executive orders into law. His infamous golden locks will most likely turn at least somewhat gray, and new wrinkles will mark his eyes, lips and forehead.
Trump, who entered office reportedly weighing 236 pounds at 6-feet-3-inches, has an estimated life span of 87.7 years, according to S. Jay Olshansky, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has studied the effects of the presidency on aging. That’s nearly three years more than the average life expectancy for a 71-year-old, college-educated man currently living in the United States.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 8 Aug 2017 by LIFE INSURANCE INTERNATIONAL via VERDICT
Legal & General America’s ‘selfie tech’ makes life insurance snappy
A new innovation from Legal & General America means customers will be able to simply submit a photo of themselves – otherwise known as a ‘selfie’ – to obtain a life insurance quote
Legal & General America’s SelfieQuote.com provides a life insurance quote by estimating an individual’s age, gender, and body mass index (BMI) using an individual’s selfie photo.
Legal & General America is the first in the life insurance industry to roll out the selfie-quoting technology.
This groundbreaking digital experiment, now in beta phase, is made possible through a partnership with Lapetus Solutions, (LSI), the science and technology company that created the new facial analytics technology.
Utilizing their platform, Legal & General America is able to analyze a selfie to provide an indicative quote for life insurance.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 8 Aug 2017 by TECHEMERGENCE
Artificial Intelligence in Insurance – Three Trends That Matter
Change is here, more is coming. The insurance market is dominated by massive national brands and legacy product lines that haven’t substantially evolved in decades. Sound familiar?
Customer Experience & Coverage Personalization: AI Interfaces Allow Better Customer Onboarding
You can now buy insurance with a selfie. In January 2017, the life insurance startup Lapetus made headlines by offering a service for people to buy life insurance using a selfie. Since habits such as smoking cigarettes are strong predictors of lifespan, Lapetus can use facial analysis to rapidly assign risk scores without a lengthy or onerous medical examination.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 8 Aug 2017 by ASIA INSURANCE REVIEW
Adviser alert! Tech trends you need to know
As an agent or adviser, are you concerned about how the rise of technology and digitisation in life insurance will affect your role? Ms Christie Loustau, Senior Underwriting Consultant, Asia at RGA Reinsurance Company, is of the view that the future of advice will be a hybrid of both digital and human advisers. Here are some of the technology trends she identifies that may impact on life insurance.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
A firm in the US, Lapetus Solutions, has come up with facial analytics technology that can estimate an individual’s key body data just via a selfie photo. It has already partnered with an insurer to provide life insurance quotes based on clients submitting their selfies on a website.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 1 Aug 2017 by DIGITAL INSURANCE
Biometrics on the rise as insurers look for smoother experience
Biometrics, or the measurement and analysis of unique physical or behavioral characteristics as a means of verifying personal identity, is being explored across financial services. The insurance industry is no exception, as carriers work to familiarize themselves with the latest emerging technology that encompasses everything from fingerprints to voice to facial structure.
Donald Light, director of Celent America’s P&C insurance practice, says insurers have some catching up to do compared to banking, technology, and security firms. However, he expects insurance use of biometrics “will grow probably pretty quickly over the next two to three years.” That includes use cases around cybersecurity, ease of access and customer experience.
“With this technology, members can use something they are – like their face or voice – to provide an additional layer of security to verify their identity,” said Gary McAlum, chief security officer at USAA.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 31 Jul 2017 by BUSINESS WIRE
The Power of a Selfie: Legal & General America Launches SelfieQuote.com, An Engaging New Way to Receive a Life Insurance Quote by Simply Uploading a Selfie
Life Insurance Company Partners with Lapetus Solutions to Launch Innovative Website to Produce a Life Insurance Quote Based on a Selfie Photo.
FREDERICK, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Legal & General America has launched an easy and engaging way to obtain a life insurance quote: simply submit a photo of yourself, otherwise known as a ‘selfie’, and let technology do the rest.
SelfieQuote.com provides a life insurance quote by estimating an individual’s age, gender, and body mass index (BMI) using an individual’s selfie photo. Legal & General America is the first in the life insurance industry to roll out the selfie-quoting technology. This groundbreaking digital experiment, now in beta phase, is made possible through a partnership with Lapetus Solutions, Inc (LSI), the science and technology company that created the new facial analytics technology. Utilizing their platform, Legal & General America is able to analyze a selfie to provide an indicative quote for life insurance. A customer can then provide exact answers, update the amount of desired life insurance, and receive a personalized quote based on accurate information. Customers can then apply for a term life policy online which takes just a few minutes.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 09 Jul 2017 by THE TIMES
Tech: Take a selfie — it’s a matter of life and death
Software that can read the lines on your face is set to turn the calling card of self‑obsessed Millennials into a tool for the insurance industry.
The selfie, that most Millennial form of self-obsession, is about to grow up and get a serious job — in the life insurance industry, of all places. Last week I handed a selfie to a company that claimed it could divine my future by feeding one through an artificial intelligence-powered photo-analysis program.
I was sceptical, not least because the California sun is causing my face to prune. The program, created by an American company, Lapetus, concluded I was two months older than I was (blame the wrinkles) and gauged, accurately, that I was underweight. I cycle a lot.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 05 Jul 2017 by SAPIENS
Selfies set to revolutionize life insurance underwriting?
Many of us find looking at other people’s selfies to be annoying. One survey found that a whopping 82 percent of participants would rather see other types of photos, instead of selfies, on social media.
But there is one group of people that not only want to look at your selfies, it believes these self-generated pictures can predict longevity.
Lapetus Solutions Inc., a science and technology company based in North Carolina, has developed a life insurance product called “Chronos.” This product would enable prospective life insurance customers to upload a selfie to their insurer and then answer a few health questions. Chronos’ facial analytics technology would scan hundreds of points on the face and can then allegedly draw conclusions regarding body mass index, potential diseases, smoking habits and ultimately, life expectancy.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 20 Jun 2017 by THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
A selfie could become the new way to obtain life insurance.
You'd think life insurance would be almost immune from disruption by technology, but one of the oldest and most data-intensive industries is likely to undergo huge transformation.
If technology being developed in the United States matches the hype, those looking to buy life insurance will be able to have their applications assessed and approved in minutes.
Artificial intelligence is being trained to estimate how long someone will live and their health status – all from a selfie taken by applicant.
North Carolina technology firm Lapetus Life Event Solutions is a leader in the field. With its Chronos technology, the life-insurance applicant takes a selfie and scans their driver's licence photo against which the selfie is compared.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 17 Jun 2017 by GIZMODO AUSTRALIA
Scientists Find Genetic Mutation That Could Increase The Male Lifespan.
Professor S. Jay Olshansky once told Gizmodo, "In the world of ageing sciences, if you want to live a long life, choose long-lived parents." So genetic markers linked to longevity are interesting as hell. But if you have the wrong genes, then the wrong moves might do you in.
A team of researchers from universities in the United States wanted to figure out the role of genetics in human lifespan, specifically relating to growth hormone. The researchers' work shows two main things: First, that a mutation in men's DNA relating to growth hormone might lead to a longer lifespan. And secondly, that treating older people with growth hormone might be dangerous if they don't have the variation.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 29 May 2017 by LA STAMPA
How much does life insurance cost? A selfie is all you need.
Some US insurance companies are testing Lapetus Solutions start-up technology that is based on face analysis to evaluate customer health information.
Soon the insurances could rely on selfies sent to them by customers to calculate life insurance premiums. Some American companies are testing the facial analysis system and developed by Lapetus Solutions start-ups to determine the people’s life expectancy.
Read the full article (in Italian) here.
Posted on 25 May 2017 by PRECISE LEADS
This Startup is Selling Life Insurance Through a Selfie.
Do selfies hold the secret to life expectancy? One tech company thinks so.
Photos posted on social media capture moments from our lives, from major events to trivial snaps of our food. Yet one insurtech startup thinks those fun photos reveal more than just what we did over the weekend. Lapetus Solutions, Inc. has developed facial recognition technology that scans a person’s selfie for clues about his or her lifestyle, informing decisions about life insurance policies.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 19 May 2017 by KTTS
How your selfie could affect your insurance.
Everyone is guilty of taking a selfie, but thanks to a new technology your selfie can showcase more than just a great hair day. A new technology from the company Lapetus in North Carolina cuts down the time you get life insurance.
Karl Ricanek created the technology called Chronos. Chronos uses facial analytics and biodemography to tell how fast or how well someone is aging. In order to be approved for a life insurance policy or know how much your policy will be, your insurance company must look at how you are aging. The faster you’re aging, the bigger the risk you are for them to insure your life.
Read the full article and see the video here.
Posted on 16 May 2017 by FINANCIAL TIMES
Insurance: Robots learn the business of covering risk.
Artificial intelligence could revolutionise the industry but may also allow clients to calculate if they need protection.
One of the most complex professions in the world is at risk of being replaced. By a selfie. Selling life insurance has traditionally involved an in-depth assessment of the customer by a qualified underwriter using a well-worn set of actuarial models. Not any longer. Lapetus, a US-based start-up, believes a selfie can replace much of that. Customers email their finest self-portraits and the computers do the rest, scanning the picture and analysing thousands of different regions of the face.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 9 May 2017 by BILI BILI
Chinese video on Lapetus and CHRONOS.
The Chinese video sharing website BiliBili has posted a video talking about Lapetus and CHRONOS, including fragments of an interview with Lapetus Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist Dr. Karl Ricanek.
Posted on 9 May 2017 by NEWSWEEK
Selfies and death: Life Insurers watching as photos may predict when you’ll die.
Selfies may be most keenly associated with narcissistic young millennials on social media, but they could soon have very serious implications for a person’s future. A company in North Carolina has claimed it can take people’s selfies and use them to predict their life expectancies. And they say the product has already been tested by life insurance companies that could use it to make quicker determinations on whether people qualify for coverage.
Lapetus Solutions Inc., a science and technology company in North Carolina that developed the selfies technology, called Chronos, says it would enable a customer to purchase life insurance in 10 minutes without taking a medical exam.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 5 May 2017 by THE SUN
Selfie Assured. Insurance companies will judge whether to cover you based on a SELFIE because ‘your face reveals all’.
YOUR selfie could soon determine whether you’re accepted by insurers based on whether you look too wrinkly for your age.
Researchers in the US say a new technology could allow customers to buy life insurance online in as little as ten minutes by simply scanning your mug.
Karl Ricanek Jr, cofounder of Lapetus Solutions, has created a tool called Chronos, which can spot tell-tale signs of premature ageing.
And if you’ve been living like a rockstar for too long, Chronos will give the game away.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 5 May 2017 by DIGITAL INSURANCE
Selfies, the latest big data source for life insurance.
As the old adage says, a picture is worth a thousand words. But for life insurers, the value may go beyond that.
That’s the objective of a new insurtech startup, Lapetus, which has developed facial analytics software that uses selfies to analyze body mass index, gender, and even physiological age to determine underwriting risk.
The platform, Chronos, uses machine learning algorithms to extract human faces from images. Its AI engine then looks for intricate signals that give away information life carriers consider when issuing policies.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 26 April 2017 by TEARSHEET
How a selfie could be the key to unlocking a life insurance policy.
The next selfie you take may determine how much you’re going to pay for that life insurance policy.
Lapetus Solutions, a two-year-old startup based in Wilmington, North Carolina, has developed technology to assess a whether a person is aging slower, faster or at par with their chronological age based on a selfie and a series of questions. Beyond the obvious clues to aging, facial lines can also offer clues to other health ailments that can influence how long an individual will live, including whether or not they smoke or body mass index. These insights can help insurers figure out premium costs and radically cut down the time it takes to evaluate life insurance applicants, said the company.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 25 April 2017 by USA TODAY via NERDWALLET
How your selfie could affect your life insurance.
A selfie reveals more than whether it’s a good hair day. Facial lines and contours, droops and dark spots could indicate how well you’re aging, and, when paired with other data, could someday help determine whether you qualify for life insurance.
“Your face is something you wear all your life, and it tells a very unique story about you,” says Karl Ricanek Jr., co-founder and chief data scientist at Lapetus Solutions Inc. in Wilmington, N.C.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 21 April 2017 by GLOBAL NEWS CANADA
Here’s how your selfie could one day affect your life insurance.
When you think of a selfie, life insurance probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. However, a company in North Carolina is claiming its product can help determine if you’ll qualify for life insurance.
Lapetus Solutions Inc. in Wilmington, N.C., says its product, Chronos, can help estimate your life expectancy, which is a big factor for life insurers.
According to Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc. (CLHIA), life insurance is “a way to protect your survivors and dependents against financial hardship” and “guarantees payment of the face value of the policy, upon death.”
Read the full article here.
Posted on 20 April 2017 by APOLICE
Insurance companies in the US test selfies for life insurance.
Overcoming the need for scales, blood tests and questionnaires, it is time to make room for: the selfies! Several insurers are testing technologies that use face analysis and other online photo data to estimate people’s life expectancy.
“Your face is something that you have carried and will carry with you all your life. It tells a unique story about you”, said the Co-Founder and head of data of Lapetus Solutions, a company based in North Carolina. The company provides technological services of facial analysis.
Read the full article (in Portuguese) here.