A vacuum robot takes photos of a woman sitting on the toilet. Because it is a test device, the recordings are sent for analysis – and later even end up on the Internet.
Venezuela – Our mobile phones, smartwatches or smart home systems offer more functions every year, making our lives easier. Smartwatches from Apple and Co. can already read health data. In Stuttgart, a first responder used her smartwatch to take the pulse of a woman in distress. With Amazon’s voice assistant “Alexa”, it is now even possible to control music, films and other devices in the house. And vacuum robots have now installed cameras to navigate more safely and thus improve the technology.
However, the special functions also have their pitfalls. As is well known, our technical devices listen in so that they can react immediately if spoken to. Language assistant “Alexa” occasionally makes scary comments and once asked a child to get an electric shock. In Venezuela, a few years ago, the camera service of a vacuum robot put a Venezuelan woman in an awkward situation.
Vacuum robot takes photos of a woman sitting on the toilet – they end up on the web
The Venezuelan lady’s vacuum robot was the “iRobot Roomba J7” development device. The version was used by the manufacturers to train the robot’s artificial intelligence with the help of the start-up Scale AI stern.de reported. For this purpose, the vacuum robot sent recordings to the specialists who evaluated them – the users of the devices knew about it. While a tester from the country in South America was sitting on the toilet, the little household helper took photos of her and sent them for evaluation.
The vacuum robot must have recognized the woman as an obstacle when cleaning the bathroom. Unfortunately, not only did Scale AI receive the piquant shots of the robot, they later also ended up in private Facebook groups. The manufacturer could not explain how the photos of the woman got online. The analysis companies have signed strict data protection agreements, said a spokesman. In any case, the business relationship with the company concerned was terminated and the violation was punished accordingly. In addition, the safety precautions at other contractual partners have been tightened again.
Manufacturer rejects guilt – scientist warns against too much trust in the technology
In this case, the manufacturer cannot be blamed. The special vacuum robots were not freely available commercially and the testers agreed that the devices could take and send pictures. In addition, a note is said to have been attached to the robots that said “recording in progress”. Nevertheless, a computer scientist warned not to underestimate the devices and to trust them too much. “It’s a lot easier for me to accept a cute little vacuum cleaner moving around my space than someone walking around my house with a camera,” she told the magazine Technology Review.
For this reason, many Facebook users are skeptical about intelligent technologies. “Well, I would say: be careful when and where you let it suck,” writes one user. “You shouldn’t be so stupid and bring every kind of technology into the house,” said another. “That’s why I don’t get an Alexa bug in the house,” comments one user. The affected woman from Venezuela may now also be doing without smart home systems.
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