Startup Shift Will Clean Your Apartment For Free If You Let Them Film It For AI

Professionals dispatched by Shift will vacuum, mop, and wipe down every surface in your apartment completely free of charge. The catch is that every single sweep of the broom and scrub of the sponge is captured on camera to train future AI assistants. This footage is then processed, packaged, and turned into training datasets for artificial intelligence and domestic robots.

To capture the most realistic action possible, cleaners wear a camera mounted on a special cap. This first-person point of view allows developers to see exactly how a human hand manipulates a vacuum cleaner or squeezes a sponge. Naturally, Shift promises that all sensitive data is strictly sanitized before anyone else sees it—meaning faces, names, and any questionable wall art will be blurred out of existence.

Interestingly, the AI developers are particularly hungry for the most complicated and disgusting tasks, though the human workers still retain the right to refuse to clean up anything too biohazardous. Currently, the service is limited to New York, but plans are already in motion to expand to San Francisco, London, Zurich, and Munich. This free trial won't last forever, and the startup eventually wants to record other chores like cooking, plumbing, and construction.

In the end, humanity has reached a bizarre peak of convenience where people are willing to trade the intimate layout of their homes just to avoid doing the dishes. It seems the ultimate price of a dust-free living room is helping corporations build the very machines that will eventually render human labor obsolete.

Source: Shift