AI training startup Shift wants to clean your home for free. The catch — because, despite what its website says, there’s always a catch — is that it will record cleaners as they scrub, vacuum, dust, tidy, and wash, and use that footage to train robots.

Shift announced the unusual offer on social media on Thursday, explaining that the value of the training data generated from the cleanings is more than enough to fund the service. As its website puts it: “You get a spotless apartment. We get training data. Everyone wins.”

A promotional video shows a cleaner in a crisp white uniform and awkward-looking hat (more on that later) washing windows, mopping and vacuuming floors, scrubbing dishes, and wiping down counters. According to Shift’s co-CEO and co-founder Bercan Kilic, this “magic hat” is what records the work.…