A video of a vegetable seller in Bengaluru wearing a head-mounted device with an iPhone strapped to his forehead has gone viral on social media. The clip was shared on Instagram by a user named Vaibhav, who claimed that the vendor was collecting “real-world data” for AI training while working.
“I was just cruising on my scooty when I had to literally slam on the brakes for this,” Vaibhav wrote in the caption.
“I saw a local vegetable vendor wearing a headband rigged with an iPhone and a memory card. Naturally, I had to stop and ask. The answer? He’s collecting real-world data for AI training,” he added.
Vaibhav said that the worker was allegedly being paid ₹350 per hour for the task. “The kicker? They get paid ₹350/hour. Do the math: 10 hours a day = ₹3,500/day. That’s over ₹1,05,000 a month,” he wrote.
“I’m still sitting here processing the fact that a street vendor might be out-earning half of corporate India by walking around with a smartphone on his head. The future is wild,” the caption added.
The video also featured an overlay text in Hindi that read, “Bangalore aakar thela lagane ka socha tha, ab inki job bhi safe nahi.”
Watch the video below:
How did social media react?
The video triggered a wave of reactions online, with many users debating whether such AI-related work opportunities were beneficial or worrying in the long run.
One user wrote, “More pay now so later AI takes over! There’s already a robot called Neo manufactured by @1x.technologies for house chores. Soon the world will be operated by machines it seems.”
“Earning 1 lakh until robots get trained on the same data and he’s out of business,” expressed another.
“This has become super common in every field, say, in fast fashion where clothes are mass produced, say tirupur ( famous cotton clothes exports) tailors have this gear attached to their head while working. Imagine – 1000s of tailors giving data on how they work, coming to bite their back. like somebody here said, don’t know if its good or bad, no comments on that 🙁 according to me that’s sad,” commented a third user.
“THINK: When we went to the airport, the staff was asking us to use the automated check-in…. now i see many check-in machines doing the job, so what happened to the many who were there then… this data is successful or not today, someday it will be and will replace these people. Pay high salary/incentive is bcz this i short term!” wrote another.
