Indian Factory Workers Record First-Person Data to Train Future AI Robots

In the textile hub of Karur, workers such as 40-year-old Shoba Kirubakaran and 42-year-old Kannagi Periyasaamy are fitted with GoPros and smart glasses that capture every hand movement while they pack aprons, fold cloth or perform quality checks. The footage is collected by the tech firm Objectways and sold to AI developers who need “egocentric data”—video from a human perspective—to teach robots how to replicate these tasks. Workers are paid roughly $2.60 an hour, earning about $90 a month in the textile plant or $120 a month for domestic-task recordings.

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India’s large labor force, low wages and relatively open tech environment make it attractive for companies that require millions of hours of first-person recordings. Professor Prathosh A.P. of the Indian Institute of Science explains that AI systems are “brains without a body” and need human-collected motion data to acquire motor skills. Objectways also gathers “exocentric data” from the robot’s point of view, using workers who manipulate mock robot claws to demonstrate actions such as screwing bottle caps.

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Critics argue the practice exploits workers who receive little explanation or training for the new role. Astha Kapoor, co-founder of the Aapti Institute, labels it “exploitation of labor” and notes that robots are “bloody expensive to run,” making human labor cheaper in the near term. Economics professor Amit Basole questions whether India’s policy framework can retrain the workforce for new occupations, expressing doubt about the country’s “policy agility.”

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Objectways CEO Ravi Shankar, a Karur native, acknowledges that while clients seek AI solutions for hard-to-staff jobs—such as tapping rubber trees or destemming chilies—he believes robots will remain costlier than humans for now. He emphasizes that many client requests involve domestic tasks, prompting the company to pay Indian workers to record chores like chopping onions or folding towels for U.S. customers.

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• “Indian workers are training AI robots to take their jobs.” — AsiaNet News

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• “That can be obtained only by emulating or collecting data from real human beings that does the job,” — Prathosh A.P

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• “Call it what it is, which is exploitation of labor," says Astha Kapoor, co-founder of the Aapti Institute, which studies the impact of technology on people.” — Astha Kapoor, co-founder of the Aapti Institute

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• “The robot is like a child,” — Rajeshkumar Ramaswamy

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• “We are training them [the robots] on how to package the aprons, how to do a quality check, how to fold the aprons.” — Kannagi Periyasaamy

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