[AI-generated image]
[AI-generated image]

A New York-based startup is drawing attention with an unusual offer: free apartment cleaning, on the condition that residents agree to have the entire process filmed for AI training purposes.

German startup MicroAGI recently announced the launch of its app, Shift, on social media, advertising the free cleaning service, Business Insider reported Thursday.

According to footage the company released, Shift cleaners visit homes wearing head-mounted cameras that record the entire cleaning session. The footage is then used as AI training data — the idea being to address one of the field's persistent challenges by capturing real-world task data in actual home environments.

"There is absolutely no cost," Shift said, explaining that the recorded footage serves as the currency that covers the cost of running the service.

The offer went viral almost immediately. It racked up 8.3 million views, and all 250 available cleaning slots sold out at once. "Thousands of people tried to book," Harry Kilberg, Shift's US general manager, told Business Insider.

However, the service has also sparked privacy concerns. Some critics questioned the wisdom of letting strangers into one's home with full access, noting that the company had not provided detailed information on how its cleaning staff are vetted.

The anonymization process has drawn scrutiny as well. Shift said footage is blurred to obscure faces, ID documents and personal information before being uploaded to the cloud, but critics said the possibility of technical errors cannot be ruled out entirely. There are also concerns that third parties gain access to the footage during the data-scrubbing process.

Shift pushed back on the criticism. "Users get a clean home, and we get AI training data," the company said. "It's a structure where everyone benefits."

The company said it plans to expand into other household services. "This project — offering specific services in specific cities — is just the beginning," Shift said, adding that it intends to roll out home repair, errand and odd-job services globally in the near future.


bbo@heraldcorp.com