How Big Tech is harnessing the data of Indian factory workers to train robots
· Scroll
In April, a video of Indian factory workers went viral. It showed the workers sewing garments while wearing white bands around their heads fitted with a camera.
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The video garnered hundreds of thousands of views and was picked up by several news outlets that speculated about what use the footage of the hand movements of the workers could be put to. “Are factory workers training AI to replace themselves?” CNN asked.
The reports did not specify where the cameras had been deployed and by whom.
Scroll was able to identify the factory where workers were wearing the head-mounted devices. It is the Gurugram unit of Pearl Global Industries Limited, an apparel manufacturer with a presence across 10 countries.
“We were supposed to wear the device from 10 am to 4 pm,” one of the workers at the factory told us. “They [the executives] said that they wanted to find out what we were doing during our shifts and for how much time.”
Similar devices were used in the factories of Ken India, a textile manufacturer based in Ichalkaranji, Maharashtra, in March 2026, where they seem to have been used for a different purpose.
In a post on Linkedin, Ken India said that the hardware belonged to a start-up called Egolab.AI.
Founded in January 2026 by two teenagers...