The latest
AI training startup Shift is offering New Yorkers free professional home cleanings, but the deal comes with a clear tradeoff: the company gets to record the work and use the footage to train robotics systems.
Details
• Shift says messy homes are useful because they provide “challenging cleaning environments” for AI training.
• The company says the video data is valuable enough to cover the cost of cleaners for a limited time.
• Shift says it will blur sensitive details to protect customer privacy.
• The company’s broader app pays people to wear cameras while doing everyday tasks.
• Ars Technica reported that Shift has paid tens of thousands of people in 15 countries to record daily work and chores.
What to watch
The offer shows where AI training is heading next: away from only office work and deeper into physical, everyday tasks that robots still struggle to understand.
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