India, July 1 -- In the 1990s, American hospitals began routing physician dictations to transcriptionists in Bangalore and Chennai. It was unglamorous work, but India was good at it.

Thirty years on, cameras are being slapped on the foreheads of India's blue-collar workforce, and as they sew a seam, pack an iPhone or assemble a component, the gadget records - every wrist angle, hand movement and intricacy with utmost precision and detail. The data then travels by cloud to robotics labs in San Francisco, where it trains bots to move like people.

Indeed, India is becoming a training ground for robots capable of doing human-like work.

In April 2026, video clips of textile workers at a factory in Delhi NCR wearing small head-mounted camera...