California Startup Offers $18 to Film Tasks for Robot Training

SAN FRANCISCO -- Californian artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, Memories.ai, is paying people to capture videos of regular tasks like repairing a bicycle, for as much as $18, among others, to train robots.

The company has started a platform named Memories Upload where contributors choose their tasks ranging from cooking, washing dishes, folding laundry and repairing equipment.

The company has put example amounts payable to participants, such as $4.50 for folding laundry, $6 for chopping vegetables, $15 for making dinner and $18 for repairing bicycles. These are just examples and not what participants will earn or the maximum amount that they can earn.

To capture videos of their tasks, participants use the company's wearable device, LUCI Pin, which weighs less than 45 grams and is attached to the wrist, chest or head.

The firm pays its contributors only when the videos are accepted after examining them to remove unnecessary parts like idle times, bad quality images and parts not related to the task.

Memories.ai claims that its network has managed to collect over one million hours of first-person video during the initial month of beta testing. It plans to go past 10 million hours by March 2027. These numbers have not yet been independently verified.

The clips provide information on how people manipulate objects and carry out certain tasks under various conditions. Memories.ai employs models to detect and label human actions in such a way that developers will be able to search for particular movements through the accumulated clips.

In contrast to data generated through controlling robots from afar, the recordings involve people carrying out physically demanding tasks. Nevertheless, developers convert human motions into actions that robots can carry out.

The process of collecting the material is controversial in terms of people's privacy as recordings include other workers and people. Memories.ai claims that it needs people's consent and frequently recorded other workers and obscures all personal details with the help of automation before making the clips available to the customers.

The company does not disclose what percentage of the clips has been used in robot training and whether it has improved robot performance.