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Update

What changed

The BBC reports that Mohammed Ashim, a 22-year-old barber in Bengaluru, now wears a head-mounted camera for five or six hours a day while working. It records his hands and fingers, with clients’ faces blurred.

The footage is used to train “physical AI”, systems intended to control robots in the real world. Data collector Rashdan Technologies says it pays $5 to $10 for eight to ten hours of recorded work.

The work also raises questions beyond what gets captured. A labour studies professor interviewed by the BBC says it is too early to know whether the machines trained on workers’ actions will eventually take over some of their jobs.

Would you wear cameras while doing your job for extra pay if the footage could help train machines to do similar work, and what protections would you expect?

Sources and evidence

• The Indian workers filming their work to train AI – BBC: The BBC reports that workers in India and elsewhere are paid to film everyday tasks, with the footage sold to technology firms and research organisations for training physical-AI systems; some clients are requesting multi-camera recordings.

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