Startup offers free cleaning for AI training data

Key facts

• Shift offers free cleaning services in exchange for recording household chores.
• The collected footage serves as training data for AI labs and robotics companies.
• Cleaners wear head-mounted cameras, and data is anonymized by blurring faces and screens.
• Shift is the consumer-facing brand of the German AI research lab microagi.
• The company aims to accelerate the development of physical AI and robotics.

Shift, a startup from German AI lab microagi, is offering free apartment cleaning services in New York City. The condition for the free service is that cleaners wear head-mounted cameras to record footage of household chores, which is then sold as training data to AI labs and robotics companies. The company's launch video went viral, attracting over 8 million views, and the initial 250 cleaning sessions sold out immediately. Shift is part of a broader industry effort to acquire real-world data for developing physical AI and robots. microagi, founded by former Formula One engineers Bercan Kilic and Yoan Iliev, and AI researcher Anton Poletaev, aims to develop 'end-to-end physical AGI.' Shift currently operates in 15 countries with 14,000 data collectors. The company believes this model can help transition to an economy with more abundant goods and services. Shift's General Manager, Harry Kilberg, stated that the unit economics are favorable due to proprietary data processing technology that yields high-quality, anonymized data, with faces and screens automatically blurred and no audio captured. The idea originated from early users who were already recording themselves and offered cleaning services. Shift plans to expand its services beyond cleaning to include cooking and plumbing, and to broaden its geographic reach across the US and other countries.