US Company Shift Offers Free Cleaning in Exchange for Data to Train AI Robots

A US company called Shift is offering free apartment cleaning in New York City, in exchange for recording the entire process. Professional cleaners wear devices to capture first-person footage of the tasks, which is then used to train AI and home robots to learn how humans do daily chores. Shift anonymizes the videos by blurring screens, IDs, papers, and any personal info, keeping the data private. It won't be shared publicly or sold to advertisers, only used for AI and robot training. Experts say real-world human task data is hard to recreate and expensive to get, making this footage valuable for companies building home AI. Shift plans to expand globally, offering free services like repairs and errands, always in exchange for recording the work.