#93: Trust in AI Depends on the Physical Narrative

A free cleaning startup hints at AI’s next monetization layer

Back in March, we chatted about DoorDash paying people to film themselves washing dishes.

Well, we talked about more than that. DoorDash had one of the first truly public examples of involving consumers in acquiring training data for physical AI. DoorDash began paying its Taskers to complete various household chores for the sake of data collection in the real world. As a refresher, foundational model companies will eventually run short on internet-scale text data to train LLMs. At the same time, any company building robotics must have access to niche, physical data to even start their endeavor.

If your goal is to build a robot maid, you’re going to need plenty of real-world data of people washing the dishes, folding laundry, and vacuuming.

Turns out, plenty of other companies (besides DoorDash) are serving as an intermediary for real-world data collection too.

I’m rarely on X, but I popped on the app this weekend and saw this announcement from Shift, a NYC-based free cleaning service. I highly recommend you click on the X post.

You read that right: free apartment cleanings for New Yorkers. The catch: the cleaners record themselves doing chores in your apartment. And Shift is super transparent about the transaction: “the value of [the] recording is what funds the service.”

This is pretty wild to think about. I can get someone to clean my apartment for free if I let them record it.

But it’s not really free. If you’re wondering why something is free, it’s because you are the product.

Same deal with most of the internet today. Paywalls and app fees are few and far between because the monetization model has shifted. Advertisers pay marketplaces and social media platforms to influence the decisions you make day in and day out. Why are Meta and Google free for users? Well, it’s because brands spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year to capture a sliver of your attention while you’re using their technology. Whether it’s Meta, Google, TikTok, or even while you wander the aisles of the grocery store (everything is a retail media network), your attention pays for discounts, entertainment, and social connectivity.

Next time you provide your email to a brand for “20% off your first purchase”, you should realize that you’re opting into giving the brand full rein to barrage you with marketing emails. It’s similar with a brand’s ads on Instagram. They are trying to meet you on the channel you are on and capture your attention, so you engage and buy from the brand.

Attention is monetizable. And in 2026, your physical dwelling is monetizable. Or at least, according to Shift.

As a self-proclaimed neat freak, I have no problem cleaning my own apartment. In fact, I find the act of cleaning relaxing at times. But I am tempted to try out Shift as a technology enthusiast.

But if I do, I’ll be careful beforehand. I imagine Shift is mainly looking to capture data points on all different kinds of furniture, kitchen sizes, and bathroom nuances to train how robots interact in a long-tail of environments. However, it’s quite likely they’ll also pick up images of family photos or valuable belongings. This data getting into the wrong hands could have serious consequences.

Shift does state the following in their privacy policy:

“We blur all personally identifiable information from screens and ID cards, to pieces of paper and cell phones to help protect both you and our home.”

But who knows what happens if they’re hacked.

Taking a step back, the AI narrative has created a lot of anxiety for society. U.S. states are considering data center bans, and the founder of OpenAI’s home was recently attacked by an anti-AI protestor. A growing subset of the population believe AI will take over the world in a negative way. Although this is heavily influenced by mainstream media who run sensational headlines to drive clicks and engagement, in return for advertiser’s budgets (you know, monetizing attention).

Things are rarely as good or bad as they seem. I’m pro-AI, but I also believe it is a “net positive”. Emphasis on net. I don’t believe AI will have as much of a long-term impact on the labor market because people find fulfillment in work and will create new jobs for themselves to add value. I also expect it’ll take longer than we think for AI to really push humans out of the loop, regardless of what any model benchmark says. But I’ll admit that AI may have drastic negative consequences on a person’s willingness to be social if they can talk to a chatbot without judgement.

Back to Shift and DoorDash. I believe their services will further exacerbate the negative press around AI. It’ll be branded as destructive to the physical services economy, as well as hurt lower-income workers who typically serve as the delivery drivers or cleaners.

On the flip side, there is a short-term angle here that helps lower-income earners. Gas prices are soaring thanks to the war in Iran, and food supply and materials inflation is likely to tick up materially if the conflict continues for much longer. Expanding the gig economy with opportunities to pick up additional work through task recordings provides additional income streams for those who are struggling to make ends meet.

But it’s dystopian. The cleaners and delivery people are training their replacement. There’s a short-term win because it creates jobs, but over time those same workers may end up training the models that automate parts of their work. And it’s not like these jobs come with health insurance or benefits; they’re contractors.

The tech-enabled marketplaces are best-positioned to serve as the middlemen between gig workers and AI companies looking for real-world training data. I’m watching closely to see which companies are buying this data to help understand what the future will look like. The buyers will do a lot to shape how consumer-facing robotics are perceived going forward. I hope they have strong branding and are seen as trustworthy. The physical AI narrative may ultimately shape AI’s path in society because for the first time the technology will quite literally be inside the home.