NEW YORK CITY — Micro AGI's initiative, Shift, is providing free cleaning services to residents in New York City. Shift cleaners wear caps with built-in cameras connected to mobile phones which record the cleaning process to collect data for training autonomous robots.

Shift's business model involves selling anonymized data from inside homes to robotics and artificial intelligence companies. Bercan Kilic, the founder of Shift, stated the goal of this data-gathering is "to advance humanity." Kilic said, "Models need to learn how their hands, cameras and environments work together."

Kilic stated that cleaners need to collect "tonnes" of data because every object and lighting condition is different in the real world. He said that robots need to be trained to adapt to various spaces and items because each kitchen, living room, and tool is slightly different. Shift cleaners clean approximately five apartments per day, five days a week, and are paid above the going rate for cleaners in New York.

Kilic said that Shift is "the most honest platform by far regarding what happens to your data." He stated that individuals' data is used daily without them knowing its purpose or receiving payment. "Clearly your data is being used every single day, but you don't know what for and you are not being paid," Kilic said. "But a free service means at least you are being paid, and it is as honest and as transactional as that."

Rory Mir, director of open access and tech community engagement at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, stated that his organization has observed "a concerning increase in 'pay-for-privacy' and 'data-bribing' practices from companies." Mir said, "While it might come with money or a service upfront, the data you share has a way of coming back to bite you." He also said that even if there is trust in the business collecting the data, there is always a risk of that information being shared with other businesses or governments. "We have just lived through decades of our data being used to manipulate us with advertising and predatory practices like surveillance pricing," Mir said.

Calli Schroeder, director of the AI and human rights programme at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, characterized Shift's approach as "a diabolically creative way to sell privacy invasion." Schroeder stated that the benefit of a free apartment cleaning is minimal compared to the potential profit from compiling and selling datasets. She said the technology developed from the collected data could lead to cleaners losing their jobs. Schroeder also stated, "I think people wildly underestimate the level of sensitive information that in-home recordings would pick up."