Intimate photos taken by robot vacuum cleaners leaked online | Metro News
Pictures of woman on toilet taken by robot vacuum cleaner leaked online
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Anugraha Sundaravelu
Thursday 22 Dec 2022 1:29 pm
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Intimate photos taken by Roomba vacuums leaked online
Recording and labelling images is used to improve the robot vacuum cleaner’s computer vision
The seemingly harmless robot vacuum cleaners in your house might be sending sensitive pictures of you to train artificial intelligence (AI).
Images of a woman seated on the toilet with her shorts pulled down to her thighs, captured by a robot vacuum cleaner, were shared on private Facebook and Discord groups, as reported by MIT Technology Review.
iRobot, the company that owns the Roomba vacuums that took the images in question, confirmed that gig workers outside the US, shared the intimate photos of unsuspecting users to social media.
The pictures were among 15 screenshots taken from recordings made by special development versions of the Roomba J7 series of robot vacuum cleaners in 2020.
The images were shared on social media by gig workers in Venezuela, whose job it is to label audio, photo and video data to train the company’s train artificial intelligence.
Robot vacuum cleaner
Images of a woman seated on the toilet with her shorts pulled down to her thighs were captured by a robot vacuum (Picture: Unsplash)
iRobot said the recordings came from robots which are given to testers and staff who explicitly agree to share their data, including video recordings, with iRobot.
However, this data is passed over to low-cost contracted workers who handle everything from keeping harmful posts off social media to transcribing audio recordings designed to enhance voice assistants.
Labellers had discussed the images in Facebook, Discord and other online groups that they had created to share advice on handling payments and labelling tricky objects, according to MIT Technology Review.
iRobot told the publication that the images came from its devices in France, Germany, Spain, the US and Japan.
The images in question included a mix of everyday pictures from inside homes, including furniture and contained descriptive labels like ‘tv’, ‘plant_or_flower’ and ‘ceiling light’.
Robot vacuum cleaner
Gig workers outside the US, shared the intimate photos of unsuspecting users to social media (Picture: Unsplash)
iRobot works with Scale AI, a startup based in San Francisco that relies on gig workers to review and tag audio, photo and video data used to train artificial intelligence.
Recording and labelling images is used to improve the robot vacuum cleaner’s computer vision to help determine the size of a room and avoid obstacles like furniture and cables.
Only high-end robots on the market like the Roomba J7 have computer vision and currently cost around £459.
The company has previously said that it has shared over 2 million images with companies like Scale AI.
iRobot has since terminated its relationship with the ‘service provider who leaked the images’ and is actively investigating the matter, and ‘taking measures to help prevent a similar leak by any service provider in the future’.
In August, Amazon signed a deal to acquire the Roomba-maker iRobot for $1.7 billion.
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author image
Anugraha Sundaravelu
Thursday 22 Dec 2022 1:29 pm
Share
18
SHARES
Intimate photos taken by Roomba vacuums leaked online
Recording and labelling images is used to improve the robot vacuum cleaner’s computer vision
The seemingly harmless robot vacuum cleaners in your house might be sending sensitive pictures of you to train artificial intelligence (AI).
Images of a woman seated on the toilet with her shorts pulled down to her thighs, captured by a robot vacuum cleaner, were shared on private Facebook and Discord groups, as reported by MIT Technology Review.
iRobot, the company that owns the Roomba vacuums that took the images in question, confirmed that gig workers outside the US, shared the intimate photos of unsuspecting users to social media.
The pictures were among 15 screenshots taken from recordings made by special development versions of the Roomba J7 series of robot vacuum cleaners in 2020.
The images were shared on social media by gig workers in Venezuela, whose job it is to label audio, photo and video data to train the company’s train artificial intelligence.
Robot vacuum cleaner
Images of a woman seated on the toilet with her shorts pulled down to her thighs were captured by a robot vacuum (Picture: Unsplash)
iRobot said the recordings came from robots which are given to testers and staff who explicitly agree to share their data, including video recordings, with iRobot.
However, this data is passed over to low-cost contracted workers who handle everything from keeping harmful posts off social media to transcribing audio recordings designed to enhance voice assistants.
Labellers had discussed the images in Facebook, Discord and other online groups that they had created to share advice on handling payments and labelling tricky objects, according to MIT Technology Review.
iRobot told the publication that the images came from its devices in France, Germany, Spain, the US and Japan.
The images in question included a mix of everyday pictures from inside homes, including furniture and contained descriptive labels like ‘tv’, ‘plant_or_flower’ and ‘ceiling light’.
Robot vacuum cleaner
Gig workers outside the US, shared the intimate photos of unsuspecting users to social media (Picture: Unsplash)
iRobot works with Scale AI, a startup based in San Francisco that relies on gig workers to review and tag audio, photo and video data used to train artificial intelligence.
Recording and labelling images is used to improve the robot vacuum cleaner’s computer vision to help determine the size of a room and avoid obstacles like furniture and cables.
Only high-end robots on the market like the Roomba J7 have computer vision and currently cost around £459.
The company has previously said that it has shared over 2 million images with companies like Scale AI.
iRobot has since terminated its relationship with the ‘service provider who leaked the images’ and is actively investigating the matter, and ‘taking measures to help prevent a similar leak by any service provider in the future’.
In August, Amazon signed a deal to acquire the Roomba-maker iRobot for $1.7 billion.
