These workers help train robots who could one day steal their jobs
Textile workers in India are being recorded by wearable cameras to provide egocentric data for training AI robots. Many workers are unaware that the footage is being used to develop technology that could eventually automate their own jobs.
Why it matters
The story highlights the ethical tensions and labor implications of using low-wage human labor to train the AI systems that threaten their future employment.
Faven Mulugeta for NPR KARUR, India — Three men stride across a cavernous textile factory floor of Texworth in the southern Indian city of Karur, handing GoPros and smart glasses to workers, including 40-year-old Shoba Kirubakaran. She's packing yellow aprons decorated with chickens into plastic wrapping for the brand Designs By Danica . It's the third time Kirubakaran says she's been told to don a GoPro.
It's recording her every hand gesture, to train AI robots to take over this job — a fact that she says the company did not share with her. NPR informed her when they interviewed her on a recent day. "Nobody told me anything about it," she says.
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