Anker offered to pay Eufy camera owners to share videos for training its AI

Anker, the parent company of smart home brand Eufy, offered to pay Eufy camera owners to share their video footage for training the company's AI systems. Hundreds of Eufy customers have reportedly donated hundreds of thousands of videos to this initiative. The move is part of Anker's efforts to improve its AI-powered features, such as facial recognition and object detection, on Eufy's security cameras. By collecting a large dataset of real-world footage, the company aims to enhance the accuracy and capabilities of its AI algorithms. While some customers have expressed concerns about privacy and data sharing, Anker maintains that the program is voluntary and that customer privacy is a top priority. The company also claims that the shared videos are anonymized and that individuals are not identifiable. The story highlights the growing use of crowdsourcing and user-generated data in the development of AI technologies, raising questions about the ethical implications and the need for transparency in such practices.