AI startup Shift offers free home cleaning in New York to train robots
The Verge reports that AI training firm Shift is trading free domestic cleaning services for footage of human labour, with plans to expand the pilot to global markets.
AI training startup Shift has launched a pilot programme in New York, offering free home cleaning services to residents in exchange for data collection. The initiative requires participants to allow cleaners to wear a camera-equipped hat while performing tasks such as scrubbing, vacuuming, and washing. Co-CEO and co-founder Bercan Kilic described the device as a “magic hat” that captures footage from the cleaner’s point of view, providing the visual data necessary to train future robotics systems.
Shift announced the offer on social media on Thursday, stating that the commercial value of the training data generated exceeds the cost of the cleaning service. The company’s website encapsulates the business model with the slogan: “You get a spotless apartment. We get training data. Everyone wins.” The service is described as a limited-time offer, with the firm noting that more challenging cleaning environments are particularly useful for data collection purposes.
To address privacy concerns, Shift states that sensitive details, including names, faces, and personal information from screens or identification cards, are blurred and anonymised before the footage is used for AI training. The cleaners involved in the programme are vetted by partners but are not direct employees of Shift. The company also notes that cleaners may decline specific tasks they are not comfortable performing.
The initiative is part of a broader market trend utilising recordings of human tasks to develop artificial intelligence systems. Shift already pays tens of thousands of people across 15 countries to record their activities through its app. The New York pilot serves as a foundational step, with the company asserting that every home cleaned today lays the groundwork for automated domestic solutions in the future.
While the service is currently limited to New York, Kilic indicated that it would be available “very soon” in San Francisco, London, Zurich, and Munich. The company’s long-term ambitions extend beyond domestic cleaning, with plans to eventually expand data collection into other sectors such as plumbing, cooking, and building.
