Guide

Getting paid to film chores to train robots: how it works.

Home robots are learning from video of people doing ordinary tasks. That has created a new kind of side work: recording yourself loading a dishwasher, folding laundry or wiping down a counter, from your own point of view.

Why robots need video of chores

Robots that work in homes, stores and kitchens have to learn physical skills — how hard to grip a glass, how a towel folds, where a spoon goes — and the most direct way to teach them is to show them thousands of real examples. First-person (“egocentric”) video, filmed from a head- or chest-mounted phone so the hands and the task stay in view, is one of the main ways robotics teams collect those examples.

In 2026 this moved into the mainstream. MIT Technology Review and CNN reported on people being paid to film their chores, and DoorDash launched a Tasks app that pays its couriers to submit task videos.

How it usually works

• You get a task with requirements: what to do, how long to record, whether your hands must stay in frame, and which mount to use.
• You record it at home or at work, usually with the phone you already have.
• It gets checked — for length, framing and whether the task was actually completed — before it's accepted.
• You're paid, most often per accepted task or per hour of usable footage. The companies buying the data then use it to train their models.

What to check before you record at home

• Who gets the video, and for what. Look for a plain statement of who can license your recordings and whether any job is exclusive to one company.
• Consent and bystanders. Your home may include other people, faces, documents and screens. A good platform tells you how to keep them out of frame and what happens if they appear.
• What's recorded, and when. Capture should happen only while you're recording a task — not in the background.
• How pay works. Be wary of income promises. Pay for this work varies widely and is rarely enough to replace a job.
• Eligibility. Many programs are limited by country, state or age.

How Taught is different

Most programs pay once per task or per hour. Taught pays a base award in Gold when a Lesson is accepted, and eligible recordings can also earn royalties each time they're licensed to a robotics company — so a useful recording can earn more than once. Royalties depend on licensing activity, are paid only after the buyer's payment settles, and aren't guaranteed.

Taught is US-only and 18+, records only while you're recording a Lesson, labels exclusive work before you record, and lets you see every licensing event of your recordings. You own your original footage. There are no shifts, quotas or fees.

Published 2026-09-23. Third-party details are as reported by the linked sources.