AI firm offers free apartment cleaning in NYC in exchange for user data

An AI company named Micro AGI is offering free apartment cleaning services in New York City through its initiative, Shift. The program involves cleaners equipped with cameras to record their tasks, with the goal of gathering extensive data to train the next generation of autonomous cooking and cleaning robots. The company plans to sell this anonymized data to other AI and robotics firms.

According to Bercan Kilic, Shift's founder, the initiative aims to "advance humanity" by collecting "tonnes" of data to help robots adapt to real-world environments, where objects, lighting, and conditions vary. He stated that the company is transparent about its data usage, viewing the free service as a transactional payment for the data provided.

However, data and privacy experts have raised significant concerns. Rory Mir from the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned about "pay-for-privacy" and "data-bribing" practices, highlighting the risk of data being shared with other entities or used for manipulative purposes. Calli Schroeder of the Electronic Privacy Information Center described Shift's approach as a "diabolically creative way to sell privacy invasion," emphasizing the underestimation of sensitive information captured in home recordings and the potential for future job displacement for cleaners.

Despite privacy concerns, some individuals are excited about participating in the AI revolution. Some of the cleaners involved expressed belief that embracing AI early will mitigate job fears, with one even sending a monitoring kit home to his mother to record her household tasks.