Credits: 1X Technologies
The Neo Robot, an advanced home helper from 1X, claims to enhance your everyday existence with the ability to perform drudgery such as cleaning and folding laundry. However, beneath the glistening allure of futuristic possibilities lies an unsettling truth. This "autonomous" robot is not autonomous at all; it is tethered to a human, one who is guiding the robot through a virtual headset. For $20,000, the consumer is spending on a surveillance tool that is a felt observation of what is going on in a home, collecting data for everything that occurs within its reach.
The company claims the robot will be "better" at the job as it gathers information about you and your life, all excellent features but your privacy is the issue to wrestle with. Consumers say the company assured them their data would be private; we have heard these promises before. Has everyone forgotten about Alexa, which had a law company charging its users for recording conversations in the user's home?
The dark part of this is to also realize that the Neo Robot, like other AI technology, is part of a growing trend of using technology to make human work invisible. The neo robot seems autonomous, but it is relying on cheap human labor, workers in underdeveloped countries, that is hidden within the robot's design. This appears to be an experience of technology, but the hybrid of "AI-washing" continues the exploitation of vulnerable workers under the guise of technological progress.
Even more concerning is the gun in particularly the larger presumptive dog whistle of the implication: the Neo Robot, like AI algorithms, could serve in the establishment of a regrettably consistent trend of invisible human labor. Here, it appears as though the robot operates independently of human labor, but it doesn't, it depends on cheaper human labor in some less-resourced country a few steps removed from the process. This hybrid platform of social implication, the illusion created by “AI-washing”, circumvents accountability and the clear exploitation of vulnerable and oppressed workers while creating an illusion of convenience, progress, and digital improvement. Is this the line we want to follow to freedom, or another piece of the surveillance and control apparatus?
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