The Architecture of the Invisible: Epistemic Violence, Digital Labour, and Indigenous Representation in Aranya Sahay’s Humans in the Loop (2024)
Introduction: The Myth of the Autonomous Machine
The prevailing global narrative surrounding Artificial Intelligence is one of sterile, disembodied magic. We are repeatedly sold the myth of the "autonomous machine"—a self-sustaining, algorithmic brain functioning flawlessly in the ethereal cloud, entirely devoid of human messiness. However, the stark, material reality is that the entire architecture of global AI is built upon the exhausted shoulders of thousands of invisible human hands. As part of an ongoing exploration into contemporary film and digital culture, guided by the analytical frameworks provided in Prof. Dilip Barad’s Film Studies worksheet, this blog post attempts a deep dive into Aranya Sahay’s devastatingly brilliant 2024 film, Humans in the Loop.
The film serves as a necessary corrective to the Silicon Valley mythos. It follows the life of Nehma, an Adivasi woman from the rural landscapes of Jharkhand, who finds herself thrust into the monotonous, precarious, and grossly underpaid world of AI data-labelling. Through her lived experience, Sahay masterfully exposes the harsh realities of the digital economy, highlighting the violent clash between rigid algorithmic logic and rich indigenous knowledge. This blog will systematically unpack the film through various critical lenses—ranging from Marxist Film Theory to Epistemology and Structuralism—to reveal how the cinematic apparatus renders the invisible visible.
Pre-Viewing Task: The Socio-Technical Landscape
Before one can adequately analyze the cinematic techniques Sahay employs, it is crucial to establish the socio-economic frameworks that govern Nehma’s claustrophobic world. The film is fundamentally a critique of modern techno-capitalism and its reliance on invisible labor forces.
1. The Architecture of "Ghost Work"
The global tech industry, headquartered in the affluent spaces of the Global North, relies heavily on a shadow workforce predominantly located in the Global South. This phenomenon, often termed "ghost work," forms the backbone of machine learning. Behind the seemingly seamless magic of generative AI, facial recognition software, and automated content moderation are thousands of human workers spending grueling hours clicking, tagging, bounding, and labeling data. Humans in the Loop places this ghost work at the absolute center of its narrative. By moving the camera away from the sleek tech campuses of California and placing it firmly in rural Jharkhand, the film demystifies AI, exposing it not as a miracle of coding, but as the product of cheap, outsourced manual data entry.
2. Marxist Alienation in the Digital Age
Applying Marxist Film Theory to Nehma’s situation reveals her as the ultimate alienated worker of the 21st century. Karl Marx argued that under capitalism, workers are alienated in four distinct ways: from the products of their labor, from the act of production, from their own human nature, and from other workers. Nehma perfectly embodies this multi-tiered alienation. She spends her days training an Artificial Intelligence system that will likely never benefit her, her family, or her community. She does not own the means of production (the algorithms), nor does she own the data she refines. She is reduced to a biological cog in a massive digital machine, selling her cognitive and visual labor for literal pennies while tech monopolies reap billions in profit.
3. The Illusion of the Autonomous Machine
The invisibility of Nehma's labor is not an accident; it is a design feature of modern capitalism. Tech conglomerates deliberately hide this labor force to maintain the illusion that machines are learning autonomously. If consumers realized that "artificial intelligence" is actually powered by underpaid women in developing nations manually clicking on images of traffic lights and trees, the futuristic allure of the product would shatter. Sahay’s film is a radical act of unmasking; it brings the digital proletariat out of the shadows and forces the audience to confront the hidden human cost of our everyday digital convenience.
Active Watching Task: Cinematic Form and Apparatus Theory
Aranya Sahay does not merely present a socio-political lecture; he utilizes the full arsenal of the cinematic apparatus to make the audience feel Nehma's exploitation. A close reading of the film's form reveals how deeply Sahay understands the medium.
1. Mise-en-scène and Visual Juxtaposition
The film brilliantly constructs a visual dichotomy between two distinct worlds. On one side, we are presented with the lush, organic, textured, and deeply historical landscape of Jharkhand. The cinematography here is sweeping, capturing the rich earth tones and the expansive sky. On the other side, we have the cold, sterile, rigid, and intensely blue glow of the digital interface. Sahay frequently uses tight, restrictive framing when Nehma is working. The camera physically traps her within the boundaries of her workspace, visually representing how the digital economy confines her existence. The glowing rectangular screen becomes a prison cell within her own home.
2. Sound Design as Alienation
The auditory experience of Humans in the Loop is an absolute triumph of sound design, acting as a direct mirror to Nehma’s internal alienation. In her moments of brief respite, the audience is treated to the rich, ambient, layered sounds of her natural environment—wind through the leaves, distant village chatter, the organic hum of life. However, the moment she opens her laptop, this soundscape is violently interrupted. The soundtrack becomes dominated by the repetitive, mechanical, hollow clicks of her mouse and the synthetic, low-frequency hum of the machine. The relentless clicking serves as an auditory metronome ticking away her life force, emphasizing the excruciating tedium of her labor.
3. Apparatus Theory and the Viewer's Complicity
Applying Apparatus Theory—which examines how the cinematic mechanism itself shapes the ideological impact on the viewer—we see that Sahay is playing a highly sophisticated game. The pacing of the film is deliberately slow, methodical, and repetitive. By keeping the camera closely tethered to Nehma’s point of view over her shoulder, the film forces the audience to engage in the act of data-labeling alongside her. We watch a screen, watching a woman, watching a screen. This creates a profound sense of complicity. By forcing us to endure the slow pacing and watch her label image after mundane image, the film aggressively strips away the sleek, futuristic glamour of Artificial Intelligence and turns the cinematic apparatus back on the audience, demanding that we acknowledge our role in the consumption of this ghost work.
Post-Viewing Task 1: Epistemological Violence
Beyond the physical and economic exploitation of labor, Humans in the Loop tackles a profound intellectual theme: AI bias and the clash of deeply incompatible knowledge systems.
1. Algorithmic Bias and Cultural Artifacts
Algorithms are often falsely presented as neutral, objective mathematics. However, the film meticulously demonstrates that algorithms are cultural artifacts. They are predominantly designed by programmers in the West and are trained to recognize and categorize the world through a distinctly Western, capitalist, and often patriarchal lens. When these systems require "training," they demand that the complex, fluid human realities of the Global South be forced into the rigid, pre-determined categories established by the Global North.
> INPUT REQUIRED: [YES] OR [NO]
> ERROR: CULTURAL CONTEXT NOT FOUND.
> AWAITING HUMAN LABEL...
2. Structuralism vs. Indigenous Epistemology
This dynamic can be analyzed powerfully through a Structuralist lens. Structuralism posits that human culture is best understood in terms of its relationship to a broader, overarching system or structure. The AI interface in the film represents the ultimate, unyielding structure—a world defined entirely by fixed data points and binary choices. In stark contrast, Nehma possesses a deep, lived indigenous epistemology. Her Adivasi worldview understands nature, society, and existence in interconnected, non-binary, and spiritually resonant terms. Her knowledge system does not fit neatly into the algorithm's dropdown menus.
3. Digital Colonization and Erasure
The conflict between these two systems results in what can only be described as epistemic violence. For instance, when the AI asks her to categorize an image of a sacred grove of trees, the algorithm only offers utilitarian labels like "Timber Resource," "Park," or "Obstacle." It entirely lacks the vocabulary for "Sacred Space" or "Living Ancestor." As Prof. Dilip Barad rightly points out in his own writings on AI bias, this lack of nuance is not merely a technological glitch; it is a form of digital colonization. The AI actively erases indigenous perspectives by refusing to acknowledge categories of existence outside of its programmed worldview. When Nehma hesitates to label an image, it is not because she is uneducated—it is because the AI lacks the fundamental capacity to comprehend the depth and sacredness of her reality. The machine forces her to flatten her own culture to earn a wage.
Post-Viewing Task 2: Politics of Representation
It is also essential to address how Humans in the Loop navigates the politics of cultural representation. Historically, mainstream Indian cinema has had a disastrous track record regarding the representation of Adivasi communities. They are frequently relegated to the margins of the narrative, depicted either through a lens of extreme, exoticized primitivism or as helpless victims requiring rescue by a saviour from the dominant caste/class.
Sahay aggressively subverts this legacy. Nehma is not a passive subject of history; she is the absolute center of a hyper-modern, globalized narrative. She is an active agent who is, quite literally, shaping the future of global technology with every click of her mouse. While she is undoubtedly exploited by the system, the film grants her immense dignity, agency, and interiority. Her quiet moments of rebellion—such as intentionally mislabeling images that offend her cultural sensibilities—are portrayed as acts of profound resistance against a monolithic digital empire. Furthermore, by centering an Adivasi woman in a narrative about Artificial Intelligence, Sahay breaks the persistent stereotype that technology and the future belong exclusively to urban, upper-class characters, demanding that we recognize the indigenous presence at the very foundation of our digital future.
Conclusion: The Echoes of the Void
Aranya Sahay’s Humans in the Loop is not merely a film; it is a vital, urgent, and necessary sociological document. It shatters the pristine illusions surrounding Artificial Intelligence by forcefully returning our gaze to the exploited, exhausted human hands that build it brick by digital brick.
Through its deliberate pacing, stark visual contrasts, and deeply empathetic portrayal of its protagonist, the film challenges our most deeply held assumptions about progress, the nature of labor, and the hierarchy of knowledge. It forces us to ask uncomfortable questions about the technologies we consume so unthinkingly. Are we building a future that understands the vast, beautiful complexity of the human experience, or are we building a machine that forces us all into narrow, easily digestible binary codes? Nehma’s story leaves us with a lingering, haunting realization: in our relentless, uncritical rush to build artificial intelligence, we are actively participating in the erasure of human nuance.
Works Cited
Barad, Dilip. (2026). WORKSHEET FILM SCREENING ARANYA SAHAY'S HUMANS IN THE LOOP. 10.13140/RG.2.2.11775.06568.
McDonald, Kevin. Film Theory: The Basics. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2023.
Number Analytics. "Film Theory Essentials: Key Concepts and Frameworks." Number Analytics, 2023, https://www.numberanalytics.com/blog/film-theory-essentials.
Sahay, Aranya, director. Humans in the Loop. India, 2024.
Sui, Z., and S. Wang. "Dogme 25: Media Primitivism and New Auteurism in the Age of Artificial Intelligence." Frontiers in Communication, vol. 10, no. 1659731, 2025, https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2025.1659731.
"Humans in the Loop: Aranya Sahay on Technology, AI, and Our Digital Lives." The Indian Express, 2024, https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/humans-in-the-loop-aranya-sahay-technology-ai-digital-10391699/.
Vighi, Fabio. Critical Theory and Film: Rethinking Ideology Through Film Noir. Bloomsbury Academic India, 2019.
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