Are the dishes piling up? Did it go through the trash can well? Is a thin film of dust starting to delaminate on your furniture? If you’re in New York City and open to unusual offers, there’s a company ready to take on these and other outstanding house cleaning jobs for free. The catch: you let the cleaners record the entire process in your home from cameras attached to their “magic hats” to help them train artificial intelligence.
The German startup behind this proposal MicroAGIinvites New Yorkers responsible for this unusual trade offer to sign up on the assignment writing platform Shift. On-site messy prospects can use a 3D tag cloud that cleaners can solve. Classics such as vacuum cleaners, vacuum cleaners and dishwashers are of course on offer. But if you’re going to reorganize your fridge, pantry, or even your entire closet, they probably will.
It was recently announced Type in XShift’s promotional video tries to explain how someone’s free cleaning service can go down. The video opens with a dashing young man knocking on an apartment door, ready to deliver some elbow grease. The company’s US CEO, Harry Kilberg, said, “The future has always started in New York. This time it will start in your apartment.” Then we see celebrities “Dinner on a Skyscraper” A photo of the instrumental track from Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ 2009 song Empire State of Mind playing in the background. There is no longer any doubt that this tech company is connected to Real New Yawkers.
On its website, Shift tries to firmly reassure future database providers Frequently asked questions. The company promises that all names, faces and other sensitive information that may be caught on camera will be automatically anonymized. They go on to explain that “to protect both you and your home, they obfuscate all personally identifiable information, from screens and ID cards to scraps of paper and cell phones.” Apparently, Shift’s FAQ doesn’t say anything about requesting that video from a session be deleted from the training database after it’s recorded and uploaded.
The company, which says it’s already paid tens of thousands of people around the world to record repetitive manual labor, says there’s no place too dirty for you to clean for free, before noting that “cleaners may refuse to do any specific work they’re not comfortable with.” Shift’s terms of service say the company is not responsible for any theft, personal injury, or property damage that may occur during cleaning, but don’t worry. The “independent cleaning professionals” you invite into your home have been “vetted by (their) partners” and that should probably allay any remaining concerns.
Shift says that the data gained from recording all these little things will continue to teach “the next generation of household robots.” This future sure sounds great and like something we can all achieve.
Bercan Kılıç, founder and executive director of MicroAGI, Posted on LinkedIn that Shift will be launching in London, Munich, and Zurich “very soon,” so stay tuned for video releases featuring Shift double-decker buses and West End Girls instrumentals in the near future. But those in The Big Apple looking to feed the beast for spring cleaning better act fast, because this is a limited-time offer. Just don’t expect the cleaners to be able to get rid of whatever is causing the sudden sulfur smell just after signing on the dotted line.
