Synopsis
Companies such as HumynAI Labs, Egodata, Neo Cambrian, XP Robotics, and Objectways have deployed people on the ground starting early this year. They are collecting data on everything from household chores like washing dishes and folding laundry to the manufacturing sector.Listen to this article in summarized format
Companies such as HumynAI Labs, Egodata, Neo Cambrian, XP Robotics, and Objectways have deployed people on the ground starting early this year. They are collecting data on everything from household chores like washing dishes and folding laundry to the manufacturing sector.
A massive demand for data to train robots has resulted in an influx of companies entering the arena. On-demand domestic services provider Pronto reportedly deployed workers to record video with consent for 0.1% of its customers. This has caused a controversy with a section of the industry and customers alleging breach of privacy.
These companies are either working directly with robotics research labs or third-party players such Encord that have partnered with large AI firms.
A quick search on job-hunting platforms such as Indeed and Naukri reveals that there are hundreds of jobs open for data annotation across companies in India, including for physical data collection.
Vineet Saraogi, cofounder of physical AI data collection company XP Robotics, called this the “new age back office for AI” where the data collected from here would be used for training AI models.
He likened this to the British-era cotton industry, where the British used cheap cotton sourced from Indian farmers and sold high-value garments made from this raw material in the Indian market. “We are seeing a similar trend playing out in AI as well,” he said.
