Bengaluru techie uses 'AI roommate' to catch his cook stealing food, shirking work: 'Just fired her'

Pankaj Tanwar called the AI roommate 'rough but already catching things I never would have noticed.' (Image credit: Pankaj Tanwar/X)

After going viral for his AI‑equipped traffic‑monitoring helmet, a Bengaluru techie has been making waves on social media again after he developed an artificial intelligence bot attached to a camera that caught his cook stealing from his kitchen, preparing food with dirty hands, and shirking work. Named 'AI roommate', the bot's camera was placed in the kitchen, and it tracked the cook's behaviour for about two weeks.

"My cook was stealing fruits from my fridge so I deployed my AI roommate in the kitchen, and it caught her red-handed," Tanwar shared on X. "It monitors the kitchen when she's cooking and pings me the moment she takes anything. sends me weekly reports. I also trained it to check if she washes her hands before cooking and cleans the slabs once done."

He added that the cook, who was paid Rs 4,800 a month, was caught stealing twice this week. "Just fired her," Tanwar said.

How the 'AI roommate' functions

According to screenshots of the conversation Tanwar had with the AI bot, it flagged the cook for opening the fridge immediately after arriving, taking apples, eating blueberries, and cooking with unwashed hands.

"She came in at 7.12 pm. First thing she did was open the fridge -- not to check what to cook. Just stood there for a bit, took two apples, put them in her bag. Then started cooking," read the AI roommate's log. "Cooked for 47 minutes. Washed hands two times. Touched the dustbin lid, scratched her nose, then rolled your chapati with the same hands. Told you after you ate -- my bad."

Tanwar then prompted it to give him real-time alerts.

In another one of its weekly reports, AI roommate noted: "This week — 4 fridge visits before starting to cook. 3 apples gone, banana from Tuesday missing, caught her eating your blueberries on Thursday — 6–7 of them, standing at the fridge. Hands washed 5 out of 7 days before cooking.

Slabs wiped 7 times but always just the visible part, the area behind the stove hasn’t been touched since Monday. Cooking time was consistently under 35 mins all week — she’s efficient, that part’s real."

Read more: UP businessman catches househelp mixing urine in food after family falls ill. Video

How Tanwar justified the surveillance 

When asked by an X user why he didn’t simply offer the cook food, Tanwar replied that he had confronted her twice previously, and she returned to taking items without permission. He added:

“I’m okay if she takes food with my permission, but stealing is a no.”

Another user questioned why the cook wasn’t more careful if she could see the camera. Tanwar said the device had been installed weeks earlier and that she had initially adjusted her behaviour before assuming “who's gonna look at hours-long videos” and slipping back into old habits.

Tanwar called the AI roommate “rough but already catching things I never would have noticed.”

His next upgrades: gas‑leak detection and idle‑time tracking.

Netizens react with praise, concern and dark humour 

Online reactions ranged from jokes to concerns about surveillance overreach. One user suggested adding audio so the system could blare “fahhhh” the next time the cook stole something. Others questioned the ethics of monitoring domestic staff with AI tools normally used for workplace surveillance.

Techie's history with DIY AI projects

This is not the first time Tanwar has gone viral for his tech experiments. In January, he gained national attention for turning his helmet into an AI‑powered traffic‑violation recorder, which flagged rule‑breakers in real time and emailed evidence directly to Bengaluru Police. The police later contacted him to understand the system and explore potential use cases.

His AI roommate also helps control the fan speed at night when he's sleeping.