menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

The hidden cost of India’s AI boom

26 0
30.06.2026

A recent news story highlighted how machine technicians in a textile factory in Nagpur have been strapped with small recording devices during working hours to track their every action. At another textile factory in Tamil Nadu, several women workers wear smart glasses that record their hand movements as they neatly pack items into plastic covers. Many Chinese and US-based AI data solutions and robotics companies have been heavily outsourcing egocentric data collection to India's vast network of factory workers and gig labourers to equip the next generation of humanoid robots and physical AI systems. Another news story underlined that, for the tenth consecutive year, the number of newborns fell in Japan, and that the world's fourth-largest economy faces one of the world's lowest birth rates and an ageing population.  As major industrial economies encountered the challenges of shrinking workforces, as a potential solution to compensate for the 'missing workers', they moved towards automation, from specialised industrial robots for repetitive factory tasks to humanoid robots(HRs), adaptable to human-centric environments. Globally, there are about 4.66 million industrial robots in operational use, and manufacturing sectors have been integrating at a record pace of 162 robots per 10,000 employees worldwide(IFR). While global research projections for HRs indicate that from 2035 onwards they will be in massive use in highly unstructured working environments, such as in households or elderly services. By 2060, the total........

© The Pioneer