Workers film daily tasks to train robots in India and beyond
Workers in India and other countries are being paid to film everyday tasks so their movements can help train AI systems that control robots. The work is part of a growing data industry, as robotics developers need recordings of real-world activity to teach machines how people handle objects and apply force.
In Bengaluru, barber Mohammed Ashim records his hands for five or six hours a day, with clients’ faces blurred. Rashdan Technologies pays $5 to $10 for eight to 10 hours of footage, while Humyn Labs says it has 96,000 data collectors across Latin America and Southeast Asia. Companies say they remove identifying details, but collecting more detailed footage with several cameras can require greater consent and higher pay.
In short
- Workers film everyday tasks to train robots.
- Rashdan pays $5 to $10 for up to 10 hours of footage.
- Humyn Labs has 96,000 collectors across two regions.
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The case for
Paying people to record everyday work can create income and make robotics systems more capable in real settings, where handling objects and applying force are difficult to learn from written instructions alone. If workers and anyone filmed give informed consent, privacy protections are effective, and compensation reflects the time and detail involved, the data industry could offer a practical way to share in the benefits of automation.
The case against
The work raises concerns about privacy and meaningful consent, especially when recordings capture clients or require detailed views of people’s movements and surroundings. Low rates for long hours of footage may also leave workers with little bargaining power while companies gain valuable training data, and broader automation could eventually affect the jobs whose tasks are being recorded.
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Originally published by BBC Technology as “The Indian workers filming their work to train AI”.