The images, the paper notes, were not made by a person, but by developed versions of the iRobot Roomba J7 series robot vacuum cleaner. They were then sent to Scale AI, a startup that hires employees around the world to tag (called annotate) audio, photo and video data used to train the AI.
MIT Technology Review has, in particular, a series of video frames showing a young woman in a toilet, whose face was obscured in the main image but not hidden in the “scrolling” frames below.
The publication clarifies that this image (like other “leaked” frames on the network) are scenes that Internet-connected devices regularly shoot and send to the “cloud” – storage with strict archiving and access control.
iRobot, the world’s largest supplier of robotic vacuum cleaners, confirmed to the publication that these images were taken by Roomba robots in 2020. However, we are not talking about consumer goods sold in stores, but about special prototypes that were used by “collectors of paid data”.
Such devices, the manufacturer noted, were marked with a sticker that says “recording video”. Also, “paid data collectors” (i.e. people paid by the company to participate in device testing) have signed written agreements confirming that they are sending data streams, including video, to the company for training purposes.
According to iRobot, these paid data collectors were required to “remove anything they deem sensitive from any space the robot operates in, including children.”
According to iRobot, anyone whose photos or videos have appeared on streams has agreed to be checked by robot vacuum cleaners, the paper said. At the same time, iRobot has refused to allow MIT Technology Review to review the consent agreements and has not given any of its faucet or paid employees an opportunity to discuss their understanding of the terms.
James Baussmann, a spokesman for iRobot, told the publication that the company “has taken every precaution to ensure that personal data is handled securely” and that the images shared with MIT Technology Review were “distributed in violation of a written non-disclosure between iRobot and the service provider.image annotation”.
iRobot CEO Colin Angle said “iRobot is terminating its relationship with the service provider that leaked the images, is actively investigating the matter and [принимает] measures to help prevent a similar leak by any service provider in the future.” The company did not respond to further questions about what those measures were, summarized in MIT Technology Review.
