A growing number of workers across India are being paid to film themselves performing routine job tasks, with the resulting footage sold to technology companies for use in training artificial intelligence systems. The practice, which spans sectors from agriculture and manufacturing to retail and domestic services, offers participants a modest supplementary income in exchange for recording their daily routines on smartphones. Contractors and data-labeling firms typically source the workers, collect the footage, and license it to AI developers seeking real-world visual data that captures how tasks are performed in diverse settings. Participants interviewed described the payments as welcome but inconsistent, and several said they were uncertain about how their likenesses and work environments would be used once the recordings changed hands.
The trend reflects a broader push by AI companies to secure authentic, human-generated data as publicly available sources become exhausted or restricted. Labour advocates caution that existing consent and compensation arrangements are often informal, raising questions about privacy, ownership, and the long-term use of footage depicting identifiable individuals and proprietary workplaces. Some researchers note that such recordings can encode workplace practices and conditions that workers may not wish to disclose. Indian regulators have not issued specific guidance on the practice, though broader data protection legislation is expected to shape how such arrangements operate. Technology firms say the footage improves the accuracy of AI models deployed in industrial and service settings, while workers' groups continue to call for clearer contracts and standardized pay rates.
Independent reporting synthesized from primary wires and global correspondents.