Startup offers free home cleaning—if it can record it all for robot training
Startup offers free home cleaning—if it can record it all for robot training
初创公司提供免费家庭清洁服务——前提是允许其全程录像以训练机器人
A tech startup is offering New York City residents free home cleaning with a twist—it will send “professional cleaners” wearing cameras to record everything they do. All that data will supposedly be used to train AI-driven robots. 一家科技初创公司正在为纽约市居民提供免费的家庭清洁服务，但有一个附加条件——它会派遣佩戴摄像头的“专业清洁工”记录下他们所做的一切。据称，所有这些数据都将用于训练人工智能驱动的机器人。
The unusual pitch comes from the German startup MicroAGI, whose website describes the company as a “team of engineers, researchers, and operators on a mission to accelerate embodied AI.” It began publicizing the free home-cleaning service run through its newly launched Shift app on May 28, with posts on social media sites such as X and LinkedIn featuring a video set to the upbeat piano notes of the Jay-Z and Alicia Keys song “Empire State of Mind.” 这一不同寻常的提议来自德国初创公司 MicroAGI，其官网将公司描述为“一个由工程师、研究人员和运营人员组成的团队，致力于加速具身智能（embodied AI）的发展”。该公司于 5 月 28 日开始通过其新推出的 Shift 应用程序宣传这项免费家庭清洁服务，并在 X 和 LinkedIn 等社交媒体上发布了宣传视频，背景音乐选用了 Jay-Z 和 Alicia Keys 的轻快钢琴曲《Empire State of Mind》。
The Shift app website claims it “connects New Yorkers with free, trusted professional house cleaners” in exchange for recording “first-person cleaning footage to help train the next generation of household robots.” The “book a free cleaning” link directs clients to enter information such as a phone number, email address, and home address, along with access instructions, before booking an appointment that lasts an estimated two hours. Shift 应用程序的网站声称，它能“为纽约人提供免费、值得信赖的专业家庭清洁工”，作为交换，用户需要录制“第一视角的清洁过程视频，以帮助训练下一代家用机器人”。点击“预约免费清洁”链接后，客户需要输入电话号码、电子邮件地址、家庭住址以及进入房屋的说明，随后即可预约时长约两小时的清洁服务。
From a privacy standpoint, the Shift app website’s FAQ states that “names, faces or other personal information is automatically anonymized, with any sensitive details blurred before it’s ever used…. We blur all personally identifiable information from screens and ID cards, to pieces of paper and cell phones to help protect both you and your home.” 从隐私角度来看，Shift 应用程序网站的常见问题解答（FAQ）指出：“姓名、面部或其他个人信息会自动进行匿名化处理，任何敏感细节在被使用前都会被模糊化……我们会模糊所有可识别个人身份的信息，从屏幕、身份证件到纸张和手机，以保护您和您的家。”
The Shift app’s privacy policy says the company uses “advanced machine learning models” running directly on smart glasses or video capture devices to “perform irreversible transformations such as automated face blurring and identifier obfuscation” before any data is uploaded to the company’s cloud servers. But there is no mention of whether people can ever request that their home cleaning videos be removed from the training datasets for robots. And it’s unclear whether the company’s anonymization techniques are enough to ensure that people’s homes can’t ever be identified when they appear in training datasets. Shift 应用程序的隐私政策称，公司使用直接在智能眼镜或视频采集设备上运行的“先进机器学习模型”，在数据上传至公司云服务器之前，“执行不可逆的转换，例如自动面部模糊和标识符混淆”。但文中并未提及用户是否可以要求将他们的家庭清洁视频从机器人训练数据集中删除。此外，目前尚不清楚该公司的匿名化技术是否足以确保人们的住宅在出现在训练数据集中时不会被识别出来。
Although the Shift app website claims “there is no catch” for the free cleaning, the FAQ notes that booking an appointment requires payment information and warns that clients may be charged if they cancel appointments with less than 24 hours’ notice or are not available to let cleaners in at the appointment time. The Shift app terms of service document also seeks to absolve the platform of responsibility for any property damage, theft, or personal injury that may ensue from the cleaning appointments. 尽管 Shift 应用程序网站声称免费清洁“没有任何附加条件”，但常见问题解答中提到，预约需要提供支付信息，并警告称，如果客户在预约时间前 24 小时内取消预约，或在预约时间无法让清洁工进入，可能会被收取费用。Shift 应用程序的服务条款文件还试图免除该平台对清洁预约过程中可能产生的任何财产损失、盗窃或人身伤害的责任。
The reason behind the promotion
促销背后的原因
So why would a tech startup offer free cleaning? The first-person cleaning data is supposedly valuable enough for the company to “offer cleaning services free of charge for a limited time” by covering the cost of the professional cleaners, according to the Shift app website. The Shift app’s privacy policy describes the “core of microagi’s business” as “the collection of data for robotics training.” 那么，为什么一家科技初创公司要提供免费清洁服务呢？据 Shift 应用程序网站称，第一视角的清洁数据价值极高，足以让公司通过承担专业清洁工的费用来“在有限时间内提供免费清洁服务”。Shift 应用程序的隐私政策将“MicroAGI 的核心业务”描述为“收集用于机器人训练的数据”。
The temporary free cleaning offer for New York City homes may also serve as a promotional hook for the Shift app’s main purpose—recruiting people to wear a “recording headstrap” to “capture short videos of everyday household or professional tasks” in exchange for supposedly getting paid $20 per hour plus bonuses. That primary function for the Shift app is briefly highlighted in the promotional video about free home cleanings, which shows US general manager Harry Kilberg claiming the platform already pays “tens of thousands of people” across 15 countries to record daily work and chores. 针对纽约市住宅的临时免费清洁服务，也可能是 Shift 应用程序主要目的的宣传噱头——即招募人们佩戴“录制头带”来“拍摄日常家务或专业任务的短视频”，作为交换，他们据称可以获得每小时 20 美元外加奖金的报酬。Shift 应用程序的这一主要功能在关于免费家庭清洁的宣传视频中被简要提及，视频中美国总经理 Harry Kilberg 声称，该平台已经在 15 个国家向“数万人”支付报酬，让他们记录日常工作和家务。
The main Shift app website, designed to sign up contributors, suggests that more than 10,000 “operators” have already been collectively paid more than $5 million in the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year. That makes MicroAGI one of the latest known startups to be recruiting and paying ordinary people to record their everyday tasks to provide robot training data. Other such companies include Encord and Micro1, with the latter having hired thousands of contract workers across 50 countries such as India, Nigeria, and Argentina, according to MIT Technology Review. Shift 应用程序旨在招募贡献者的主网站显示，在 2026 财年第一季度，超过 10,000 名“操作员”已累计获得超过 500 万美元的报酬。这使得 MicroAGI 成为最新一家招募并付费让普通人记录日常任务以提供机器人训练数据的初创公司。据《麻省理工科技评论》报道，其他此类公司还包括 Encord 和 Micro1，后者已在印度、尼日利亚和阿根廷等 50 个国家雇佣了数千名合同工。
The Shift app’s website suggests MicroAGI is launching an aggressive recruiting campaign with dozens of blog posts tailored toward NYC university and college students, teachers, restaurant and delivery workers, and even residents of specific neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the company has spread Craigslist postings targeting residents of other US cities such as Boston—and MicroAGI founder and CEO Bercan Kilic teased the prospect of the Shift app soon launching in additional cities such as London, Munich, and Zurich. Shift 应用程序的网站显示，MicroAGI 正在发起一场激进的招聘活动，发布了数十篇针对纽约市大学生、教师、餐饮和外卖从业者，甚至特定社区居民的博客文章。与此同时，该公司还在 Craigslist 上发布了针对波士顿等其他美国城市居民的招聘信息，MicroAGI 创始人兼首席执行官 Bercan Kilic 还暗示，Shift 应用程序很快将在伦敦、慕尼黑和苏黎世等更多城市推出。