Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots • Hacker News Board

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#141

Post by SoftTalker » Sat, May 30, 2026, 3:19 AM UTC

JoshTriplett wrote: post #81

ryandrake wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it is: My time is worth $0 unless I'd otherwise be earning money . So if you're an hourly contract worker, and you would otherwise be billing $100/hr to write code or something, then it makes sense to pay a gardener to mow your lawn and a plumber to fix your toilet, as long as it's less than you're making. But instead, if you'd otherwise just be doom scrolling on your phone or jerking off, you might as…

> But instead, if you'd otherwise just be doom scrolling on your phone or jerking off, you might as well mow that lawn yourself. Paying someone any amount of money is a waste. It sounds like you're saying "pay someone to save you time if you use the time to work, but not if you use the time to relax". One of the best possible uses of money is to save you time, no matter what you use the time for.

Mowing the lawn relaxes me. I find it meditative, and at the end I look back at the neatly cut grass and can see what I've done. It provides a sense of satisfaction. It's also a good excuse to get off my ass for a couple of hours and get a little exercise.

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#142

Post by dopidopHN2 » Sat, May 30, 2026, 3:21 AM UTC

trollbridge wrote: post #79

hsnv wrote: post #6

I've always found the idea of letting strangers clean my home strange. Maybe I grew up in the wrong tax bracket. I see cleaning your own home, as well as other chores (dishes, laundry) as an act of self-hygiene. If you want a robot to do your chores, that gives me the same feeling as desiring a robot to bathe you, wipe your bottom and genitals after the toilet, brush your teeth for you etc. Of course these are not ap…

A robot that could wipe after using the toilet (admittedly fairly easy with modern-day powered bidets), clean someone up, help them shower, etc. would actually be a really big deal for care of the elderly. Currently this is a job a human has to do. It would allow elderly to regain a certain amount of independence. Often they start having trouble with just 1 or 2 of these tasks, but then a home health aide is needed o…

If only there was some type of social network for taking care of each other at différent stage of life!

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#143

Post by SoftTalker » Sat, May 30, 2026, 3:21 AM UTC

elzbardico wrote: post #136

ryandrake wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it is: My time is worth $0 unless I'd otherwise be earning money . So if you're an hourly contract worker, and you would otherwise be billing $100/hr to write code or something, then it makes sense to pay a gardener to mow your lawn and a plumber to fix your toilet, as long as it's less than you're making. But instead, if you'd otherwise just be doom scrolling on your phone or jerking off, you might as…

I used to be like you. One day I found out that my oldest daughter was almost 18, and my youngest one was already 13. I wish I had paid someone to have mowed that fucking law more times and played more time with my kids, spent more time with my wife. Trying to fix it now. But the time I've lost already, this time is gone.

Kids need to see adults taking care of their responsibilities and not living a life of playtime.

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#144

Post by ian_holt » Sat, May 30, 2026, 3:21 AM UTC

hsnv wrote: post #6

I've always found the idea of letting strangers clean my home strange. Maybe I grew up in the wrong tax bracket. I see cleaning your own home, as well as other chores (dishes, laundry) as an act of self-hygiene. If you want a robot to do your chores, that gives me the same feeling as desiring a robot to bathe you, wipe your bottom and genitals after the toilet, brush your teeth for you etc. Of course these are not ap…

Unfortunately, we seem to lose more than we really gain, much of the time. Often it is 'sold' to us as 'convenient' but, I suspect, more often than not we don't gain that much

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#145

Post by enraged_camel » Sat, May 30, 2026, 3:24 AM UTC

switchbak wrote: post #74

yoyohello13 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to be really excited for stuff like this. Now I realize, home cleaning bots will basically just be cameras in your house reporting back everything it sees to the advertisers/government. Not a very utopian outlook anymore.

Robo vacuums are already doing this. What a time to be alive and all that.

I believe most robo vacuums have lidar and other sensors. They don't have cameras.

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#146

Post by jcgrillo » Sat, May 30, 2026, 3:24 AM UTC

hsnv wrote: post #6

I've always found the idea of letting strangers clean my home strange. Maybe I grew up in the wrong tax bracket. I see cleaning your own home, as well as other chores (dishes, laundry) as an act of self-hygiene. If you want a robot to do your chores, that gives me the same feeling as desiring a robot to bathe you, wipe your bottom and genitals after the toilet, brush your teeth for you etc. Of course these are not ap…

About as strange as letting someone else work on your car. Some people can do it without any discomfort. Could not be me.

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#147

Post by SoftTalker » Sat, May 30, 2026, 3:25 AM UTC

ramses0 wrote: post #120

hansonkd wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general once or twice a month cleaners aren't hired to "tidy up", they deep clean. a bit like the difference of brushing your teeth and going to a hygienist.

Housekeeper. House Cleaner. The first organizes things and may do the laundry or put away groceries or something. I wouldn't know for certain, as my income doesn't yet reach to those heady heights. The second vacuums, mops, cleans bathrooms, etc.

But, to have a House Cleaner, you must do the Housekeeping.

House Cleaner is not going to vacuum around your piles of dirty laundry.

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#148

Post by MadnessASAP » Sat, May 30, 2026, 3:29 AM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #49

necubi wrote: post #11

Better this than the Bot Company, which has been apparently renting out AirBnBs for robot testing and leaving them trashed: https://sfstandard.com/2026/05/28/sf-startup-secretly-testin...

After thinking about this for a while, I'm not sure it really happened. It wouldn't surprise me if the house was not trashed, just a landlord manipulating evidence when they think they can make money in court. There is no particular reason to trust either side and we have not seen what evidence really exists. In particular the reporters didn't do a good job of digging in - at the very least where is the response from…

A company operating above board would be sure to carefully document the state of the rental before and after whatever work they were doing. Any tradesperson/installer/technician/repair person will have tales of how they were accused of stealing grandmas wedding ring from the bottom of the sock drawer while repairing a leak in the kitchen.

So either Bot Company damaged property and is trying to pretend they didn't. Or they are incompetent and failed to document the state of the property or handle the owners complaints appropriately.

Given that their training robots and would therefore be collecting as much data as possible, including camera data, I'm leaning towards malice instead of ignorance.

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#149

Post by jcgrillo » Sat, May 30, 2026, 3:31 AM UTC

> Footage from inside your home is, of course, what you’re paying for the cleaning service with. On its website, Shift says customers’ “privacy is fully protected,” with sensitive details like names, faces, or personal information from screens and ID cards blurred and anonymized before being used for AI training.

OK, but do they store the footage in such a way that it's not tied to my physical address? This dataset is useful in one particular way--to identify valuable targets to rob. When they get hacked, will the attackers be able to exfiltrate these data in an actionable way? I don't get why folks don't ask the obvious questions. The company's answer to this question (probably involving lots of squirming and weasel words) would have made the story interesting.

EDIT: these are probably the people who have an amazon alexa, a google nest, a ring door lock, an app to remote start their car, and another app to control their oven

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#150

Post by SoftTalker » Sat, May 30, 2026, 3:34 AM UTC

nlh wrote: post #35

jrmg wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the same until we started getting our house cleaned every two weeks. It’s so freeing . It feels well worth even a few hours of my work to pay for the time of the (so efficient) cleaners. So much better value than things most people don’t think twice about paying for (streaming services, faster Internet, a nice car, etc…)

I'll take it one step further - we have a 2-year-old toddler and recently I realized that I was spending a full, solid, real 1-1.5 hours per day doing the same kitchen & play area clean-up. Every day. No matter how hard I tried, the daily chaos of my wife & I working from home, preparing meals, and our family spending time in this part of the house meant it just needed this work. I hired a lovely person recently who…

The real cause is that you and your wife never learned how to keep house. I'm in the same boat. My house is cluttered. Not like hoarder bad but stuff just piles up. I've been a guest where the house is always neat and everything is put away. The hosts just never let anything get out of place. Everything they own has a place and it always goes back there immediately after its used. They maintain this organized well kept home almost effortlessly, because they were taught how to do it at a young age by parents who were the same way. Whereas for me, it would take me several dedicated hours a day to get everything picked up and put away.