Aranya Sahay’s ode to the women of Jharkhand’s data centres

Filmmaker Aranya Sahay’s debut feature, ‘Humans in the Loop’ aesthetically captures Jharkhand’s data centres. The plot focuses on an Adivasi woman, Nehma, and also showcases the daily lives of the women who label objects for AI to recognise and differentiate.

Nehma, newly divorced, returns to her maternal village and finds a job at a data labelling centre. The director metaphorically shows an innocent and intelligent Nehma looking at AI no differently than at her one-year-old child. Teaching AI is more of a responsibility to her than a mere job. One of the most touching scenes in the film is when Nehma is questioned about not tagging a worm ‘pest’ as mentioned in the manual given to them. She explains how it only eats away the rotten parts of the plant, thus protecting it. She is then asked to “not use her brain”, but to only do what she’s told to. The scene depicts how labour is used in less affluent countries. 

The film premiered at MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in October. It was also screened at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) which concluded on Friday. 

Aranya, after graduating from St Stephen’s College and a brief stint in political consultancy, enrolled in Film and Television Institute of India, Pune for a course on direction. He then assisted filmmakers like Imtiaz Ali and Patrick Graham. The opportunity to direct ‘Humans in a Loop’ came when he participated in an open call contest that aimed to finance films on tech and culture. 

Excerpts from an interview with the director:

How did you come across this story?

I read an article by Karishma Mehrotra called ‘Human Touch’ that spoke about the phenomena of data labelling in parts of Jharkhand and Telangana. Data labelling helps AI differentiate between objects. I realised that it’s almost like the job of a parent, where AI assumes the role of a child. When you see things from that perspective, it opens up many questions like, ‘Is the child/AI a clean slate?’ or ‘Is it born with the patterns of its predecessor’. Human bias penetrating into AI comes into the picture. 

What kind of research did you do?

I researched for about seven to eight months. Apart from factual research, I spoke to academics, filmmakers and Adivasi art conservationists, among others.

I met Bulu Imam, an Adivasi art conservationist who promotes the Sohrai artform. Speaking to Imam’s wife, who is from the Oraon tribe, opened up new perspectives. She would sit with me for five-six hours and chat. Certain things she said formed the basis of a lot of ideas. 

Nehma’s character is very interesting. How did you develop it?

I met quite a few women like her working in data centres. A lot of them live in Ranchi and are well versed with technology. Nehma’s character is based on these multiple women I met. It’s also based on my own mother. That way it’s also a very personal story.

How do you view AI?

I genuinely feel that AI is like a child. We’re all custodians of the heritage of the planet that needs to be passed on to AI so that the processes that are automated are used by everybody. It needs to be diverse and equitable. That can be possible only when we give it enough information. I think it can be moulded.

These women are being empowered, but do you think they are being exploited at the same time? 

Absolutely! While the most glamorous parts of AI, like data science, are being developed in the first world, the most unknown jobs, or ghost work, is outsourced to third world countries because the labour and rent is cheap. Nobody knows about it. I wanted to show it happens here. 

On an individual level, these women were very happy doing this job because it is dignified. But yes, on a global level, it is exploitative. However, we have to detach ourselves from that perspective and look at it from the bottom half.