Uber Turns Its App into an AI Training Ground

Uber is piloting a system that lets its drivers and couriers earn extra money by completing “microtasks” for AI training — things like recording voice samples, uploading images, or submitting documents in different languages. These tasks normally live in the realm of large-scale AI labeling services like Scale AI or Mechanical Turk, but Uber wants to fold them into its massive, decentralized network of drivers. The move could change how AI gets trained and who reaps the rewards. Uber argues it can combine work and data generation into a unified app experience, but it also raises questions about fairness, compensation, and worker classification.