Companies Are Paying People to Film Household Chores—to Teach Robots

Firms now pay workers to wear cameras while doing everyday tasks—washing dishes, folding clothes, pouring drinks—to create video libraries for training humanoid robots. These recordings capture thousands of subtle variations: how hands move when pouring without spilling, how to clean different surfaces, the precise way to grip objects. This real-world approach marks a shift from robots learning in labs to learning how people actually move in homes.