在印度的回收場、工廠與建築工地中，成千上萬的勞工正戴著頭戴式攝影機或感測設備，以第一人稱視角記錄下他們分類塑膠、製作鞋子或包裝貨物等雙手操作的微小動作。這些勞工大多不知道，他們每日工作的錄像正被用來訓練人工智慧，特別是為了讓未來的機器人學會如何在真實世界中執行複雜的物理任務，這也意味著他們正在協助開發可能取代自己工作的技術。
實體人工智慧（Embodied AI）面臨的最大挑戰在於缺乏真實世界的互動數據。為了解決這個問題，全球的科技巨頭與新創公司紛紛轉向勞動力龐大且成本相對低廉的印度，將其視為獲取機器人訓練數據的最佳來源。這催生了一個快速成長的資料收集產業，許多新創公司以每小時數美元的價格收購這些經過標記的錄像數據，滿足美國與中國等地頂尖人工智慧實驗室的龐大需求。（關鍵數字： an hour）
儘管這項新興產業為許多缺乏選擇的勞工帶來了額外的收入，但隨之而來的道德與隱私問題也引發了廣泛的擔憂。許多勞工在不知情或未提供充分同意的情況下被拍攝，錄製的畫面往往涵蓋了個人的生活環境與生物特徵數據，甚至波及旁人。這場資料收集競賽凸顯了明顯的權力不對等，讓人質疑這究竟是印度下一個偉大的出口產業，還是一場披著工作外衣的剝削。
Across India's recycling facilities, factories, and construction sites, tens of thousands of workers are wearing head-mounted cameras and sensors to record their intricate hand movements from a first-person perspective as they sort plastic, manufacture shoes, or pack goods. Most of these workers are entirely unaware that the footage of their daily labor is being used to train artificial intelligence, specifically to teach future robots how to perform complex physical tasks in the real world, meaning they are actively helping develop the very technology that could eventually replace them.
The central challenge for embodied AI lies in the lack of real-world interaction data. To solve this, global tech giants and startups have turned to India, with its vast and relatively inexpensive labor force, as the prime source for robot training data. This has spawned a rapidly growing data collection industry, where startups procure and annotate these video recordings for a few dollars an hour to meet the immense, unfulfilled demand from top artificial intelligence laboratories in the United States and China.
Although this emerging industry provides meaningful additional income for many workers with limited options, it raises significant ethical and privacy concerns. Many workers are filmed without a full understanding of the purpose or without giving proper informed consent, and the footage often captures intimate living conditions, biometric data, and unconsenting bystanders. This relentless data collection race highlights a stark power imbalance, raising questions about whether this will become India's next great export industry or a massive exploitative operation disguised as employment.