The Hidden Workforce Behind Humanoid Robot Training as AI Competition Intensifies

A new global gig economy has emerged where workers worldwide are recording videos from their homes to train humanoid robots—raising critical questions about data privacy and worker rights. The AI industry is simultaneously confronting fundamental flaws in how it evaluates AI systems, revealing a dangerous gap between benchmark performance and real-world effectiveness in messy, collaborative human environments. OpenAI's record-breaking $122 billion funding round signals accelerating competition to develop advanced AI and robotics, making the stakes of these evaluation and labor issues increasingly urgent.