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).

iRobot, the company that owns the popular Roomba vacuums confirmed that gig workers outside the US broke a non-disclosure agreement and shared intimate photos of unsuspecting users to social media.

The images were captured by robot vacuum cleaners during testing according to MIT Technology Review. 

The sensitive photos included several images of a woman seated on the toilet with her shorts pulled down to her thighs. Another shows a child lying on the floor with his face clearly visible.

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 seemingly harmless robot vacuum cleaners in your house might be sending sensitive pictures of you to train artificial intelligence (AI)

The images were reportedly shared on private Facebook groups and chat app Discord by gig workers in Venezuela, whose job it is to label audio, photo and video data to train the company’s train artificial intelligence.

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’.

The images were captured by robot vacuum cleaners during testing

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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The photos included those of a woman on the toilet with her shorts pulled down.