This August 2017 photo provided by Shamima Khatoon shows Khatoon in New Delhi. Khatoon's job of annotating cars, lane markers and traffic lights at an all-female outpost of data-labeling company iMerit in Metiabruz, India, represents the only chance she has to work outside the home in a conservative Muslim region of India. This August 2017 photo provided by Shamima Khatoon shows Khatoon in New Delhi. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- There's a dirty little secret about artificial intelligence: It's powered by an army of real people. From makeup artists in Venezuela to women in conservative parts of India, people around the world are doing the digital equivalent of needlework --drawing boxes around cars in street photos, tagging images, and transcribing snatches of speech that computers can't quite make out. Such data feeds directly into "machine learning" algorithms that help self-driving cars wind through traffic and let Alexa figure out that you want the lights on.