'In the end, you feel blank': India's female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AI

A still from Humans in the Loop, a 2024 documentary that follows female data workers in Jharkhand state, India, whose labour underpins global AI systems. A still from Humans in the Loop, a 2024 documentary that follows female data workers in Jharkhand state, India, whose labour underpins global AI systems. 'In the end, you feel blank': India's female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AI Thu 5 Feb 2026 03.00 ESTLast modified on Thu 5 Feb 2026 03.03 EST On the veranda of her family's home, with her laptop balanced on a mud slab built into the wall, Monsumi Murmu works from one of the few places where the mobile signal holds. The familiar sounds of domestic life come from inside the house: clinking utensils, footsteps, voices. On her screen a very different scene plays: a woman is pinned down by a group of men, the camera shakes, there is shouting and the sound of breathing.