Inside India newsletter: Meet the humans teaching robots to perform routine tasks, as India finds a way to enter the AI race

Hello, this is Priyanka Salve, writing to you from Singapore. Welcome to the latest edition of " Inside India " — your one-stop destination for stories and developments from the world's fastest-growing large economy. India is seen as a laggard in the global AI race, but having the world's second-largest workforce and relatively low labor costs has led to a boom in companies collecting data to train robots. I spoke to the workers and companies in India that are fueling this trend of humans indirectly training robots. Any thoughts on today's newsletter? Share them with the team. The big story When it comes to making AI-enabled robots, China and the U.S. are miles ahead of India. New Delhi is seen as a laggard in the global AI race and, by extension, in the physical AI space. But having the world's second-largest workforce and relatively low labor costs has given India a unique advantage — it can provide the humans to train robots. Tanisha Reddy, a teacher at a private school in southern India, moonlights as a robot trainer. She starts the day by recording first-person videos of herself performing routine tasks like cooking, cleaning dishes, and packing lunch, she told CNBC in a phonecall. In the evening, she repeats the process, generating 3-4 hours worth of video every day. She gets paid less than $4 for every hour of recording. …