Shift trades free home cleaning for robot training data

Micro AGI’s Shift is offering free cooking and cleaning services in New York City while recording workers’ movements inside homes to train future household robots. Cleaners wear cameras attached to their caps, with footage focused heavily on hand movements and dexterous tasks such as cleaning kitchens.

Founder Bercan Kilic said the effort is designed to collect the varied real-world data robots need because every room, object and lighting condition is different. The company plans to anonymise the data and sell it to robotics and AI companies, and Kilic said similar data-gathering could extend to any skill people can demonstrate, including car repairs already being recorded by mechanics in Turkey.

Privacy advocates warned that free services may obscure the risks of giving companies access to intimate home recordings. Rory Mir of the Electronic Frontier Foundation cited a rise in pay-for-privacy and data-bribing practices, while Calli Schroeder of the Electronic Privacy Information Center called the model a diabolically creative way to sell privacy invasion. Kilic argued that Shift is more transparent than everyday online data collection because participation is voluntary and users receive a service in return.