Comment by YeGoblynQueenne
4 days ago
Look, I mean, would you really object to a human cleaner showing up every day and putting away your laundry?
If the answer is "no" then what's the difference if the human cleaner is not physically present but instead teleoperating a robot?
I mean at least the robot won't ever need to use the loo. I'm a bit fastidious like that but I don't like it when strangers sit on my loo.
(Friends too. Why can't we have a robotic potty that follows visitors around? OK, I get it... )
Scale matters. Just because I'm fine with one cop following one suspicious person around doesn't mean I'm fine with the government spying on all citizens at all times.
Same thing for robotics companies. A single cleaner is uploading ~zero information to a myriad of databases and training sets. An internet connected robot is almost certainly going to store immense amount of data and do god-knows-what with it.
First of all, yes, I would object although I've debated whether I could get over it for myself. But it's a moot point because my partner would absolutely _never_ put up with it. And that's assuming that the human cleaner doesn't show up with a go-pro and an ill defined policy about where the video from the go-pro is going and what it will be used for
It's not really the same unless the human cleaner also wears a gopro to record and archive their entire cleaning session for later review (and potential sale to data brokers when the cleaning company wants more money).
Generally when people have a house cleaner they know who it is and have some form of relationship with them that establishes a baseline of trust. That would not exist here.
This is just initial discomfort. It'll be the same as the incentives that make Uber drivers now way safer than taxis.
Eh, there's no reason why you can't choose your robot's teleoperator(s). Say the company has a page where you can check their profiles and even communicate with them.
And if robot companies were prepared to drop the pretense of robotic autonomy and sell you a by-default teleoperated robot service instead, you could always directly communicate with your robot's teleoperator while they're doing their job. Just talk to the robot, and the teleoperator replies, yes?