Independent film ‘Humans in the Loop’ explores the intersection of tribal wisdom and artificial intelligence, highlighting the importance of human input in technology.
Independent films often struggle to find their footing in the vast landscape of mainstream cinema. However, Humans in the Loop (2024), now streaming on Netflix, has carved out a niche for itself, thanks in part to the involvement of executive producer Kiran Rao. The film draws inspiration from a 2022 article by journalist Karishma Mehrotra in FiftyTwo, titled “Human Touch.” It follows the story of Nehma, an Adivasi woman from the Oraon tribe in Jharkhand, who returns to her ancestral village after a broken relationship and faces the challenge of supporting her children.
To make ends meet, Nehma takes a job as a data labeller at an AI data center, where she assigns labels to images and videos to help train AI systems. As she immerses herself in this work, she begins to recognize that the categories she is asked to define and the systems she is contributing to may harbor biases that are disconnected from her cultural understanding of nature, community, and labor.
One of the film’s emotional cores lies in the relationship between Nehma and her daughter, Dhaanu. While Dhaanu is drawn toward the urban world, Nehma feels a strong pull back to her land and traditions. Yet, she is also compelled to embrace this new mode of work. The film captures this dynamic beautifully, avoiding forced sentimentality.
Watching Humans in the Loop evokes a sense of quiet tension, navigating the complexities of place and displacement, tradition and technology, caregiving and coded labor. Viewers find themselves rooting for Nehma not only as a mother striving to support her children but also as a subtle force challenging conventional notions of progress.
The film employs contrasting spaces to enhance its narrative: the lush, vibrant village juxtaposed with the sterile, screen-filled environment of the data lab. These visual contrasts underscore the film’s exploration of loops—nature versus technology, labor versus identity, home versus exile. The sound design is particularly evocative, intertwining the natural sounds of the forest with the digital hum of the lab, creating a soulful auditory backdrop.
In addressing the theme of AI’s potential to enhance tribal lives, the film does not take an anti-AI stance. Instead, it posits that when AI systems integrate the labor, perspectives, and knowledge of tribal communities, they can become tools of recognition and empowerment. Nehma’s insistence on shaping the labels and incorporating her lived ecological knowledge into the system illustrates that technology can serve as a site of agency rather than mere extraction.
This hopeful loop suggests that humans can train machines, and in turn, the outputs of these machines can reflect that training. Nehma’s journey emphasizes that individuals can learn not only to survive but also to assert their knowledge. When approached ethically and collaboratively, AI can become part of a cycle of continuity, serving not as a break from tradition but as a tool to sustain and evolve it.
Titled after the human-in-the-loop (HITL) approach, which actively integrates human input and expertise into machine learning and AI systems, Humans in the Loop stands as a quietly significant film. Director Aranya Sahay has crafted a narrative that speaks to the age of AI while honoring the human experience—the laborer, the mother, the land. As discussions surrounding AI and equity continue to grow, this film is poised to resonate even more deeply over time, according to India Currents.