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The sidewalk bots that trundle through Berkeley, delivering food to students and residents near campus, are guided remotely.
Why it matters: The Kiwi Campus bot overseers are sitting thousands of miles away in Colombia, the native country of the company's 3 co-founders, reports Carolyn Said for the San Francisco Chronicle.
- They each watch over up to three robots, setting waypoints every 5–10 seconds to get them from place to place.
- And they're paid under $2 an hour for the work, Said reports — above local minimum wage.
Our thought bubble: We've written about the invisible, underpaid class of workers who power and improve AI, often from outside the developed countries where the technology is deployed for others' benefit. This couldn't be a better illustration of the pattern.
Kiwi did not respond to requests for comment.