When 40-year-old textile worker Shoba Kirubakaran was handed a GoPro camera at her factory in southern India, she was told simply to put it on and keep packing aprons. She had no idea the video would be used to train artificial intelligence robots to take over her job. "Nobody told me anything about it," Kirubakaran said when reporters informed her at the factory in Karur, where she has worked six days a week for a decade, earning $90 a month to help support her family.
Kirubakaran is not alone. Across India, technology firms are gathering millions of hours of first-person footage, known in the industry as "egocentric data," to teach automated machines human motor skills. While current artificial intelligence systems can generate text or analyze images, developers say physical robots need detailed recordings of human hands to learn intricate real-world movements. India has emerged as an attractive testing ground because of its massive labor force, comparatively low wages, and openness to new technology. However, labor researchers warn that recording employees without their informed consent raises serious ethical concerns.
Despite fears that automation could displace vulnerable workers across India's 600-million-person workforce, industry experts stress that widespread factory automation remains distant. Operating advanced humanoid robots requires substantial financial investment and dependable electricity, both of which remain significant hurdles in parts of the country. Many tech executives acknowledge that human labor remains far less expensive than maintaining costly machines, especially where power grids are fragile.
As a result, companies collecting this data are largely preparing robots for foreign markets or specialized tasks, such as handling hazardous agricultural work and domestic chores in other countries. But for factory employees who know only manual trade, the quiet arrival of cameras on the production line offers an unsettling preview of how technological change may reshape physical labor.