DoorDash announced a new option for its gig workers called "Tasks" on Thursday, reviving concerns that robots will take our jobs. The "new way for Dashers to earn on their own terms," as the company put it, pays their desperate workforce to film themselves completing everyday tasks like washing dishes.
For a few bucks, you too can strap on a body cam and train your AI replacement.
Training AI as gig work
Tech companies have been hiring writers and artists for low wages to train generative AI for years now, but at least those jobs require minimum pay and benefits under U.S. law. Others are using the good times you had with games like Pokémon Go to grab mass amounts of data for free.
In the year 2026, you can now get a few dollars with no benefits by filming yourself cleaning, cooking, or having a conversation in Spanish. DoorDash Tasks makes this latest episode of Black Mirror possible.
"Since 2024, Dashers have completed more than 2 million tasks," says the company blog post "introducing" the feature.
Other tasks include scanning store shelves to check inventory and snapping photos of restaurant menus, dishes, or entrances. Plus, there are still a lot of open Waymo doors that need closing.
Capturing business entrances is an obvious way to train AI delivery robots that could eventually replace DoorDash drivers. The company doesn't mention this specifically, but they already rolled out their own delivery bot, "Dot," in 2025.
The announcement does mention AI, however, in terms of filming household tasks.
"We’re also piloting a new standalone app where Dashers can complete activities like filming everyday tasks or recording themselves speaking in another language," it says. "This data helps AI and robotic systems understand the physical world."
Uber announced that they're working on a similar program last October.
"Straight out of Black Mirror"
We're still a long way off from robots that can load a dishwasher. Elon Musk could barely tend bar while being remotely controlled by humans. Regardless, a lot of people don't like where this is going.
AI is still being sold to corporations as a way to replace all kinds of workers, especially the ones they want to pay the least.
On X, @MissSassbox warned that "anyone who participates in this will be personally assisting in training future robots to take the jobs of housekeeping staffs worldwide in a few years."
Meanwhile, @esosa_ca asked, "Remember when you watch a robot movie and you ask 'how did it get so bad?'"
"This the part of the movie they don’t show you."
"This is straight out of Black Mirror," wrote tech podcaster @JoshKale.
"The most valuable new gig might just be showing a machine how to do yours. Wild times."
"Our decrepit society continues to decline to worse levels than before," @ShawnJacob32 declared.
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