Food delivery app company DoorDash has introduced a new way for couriers to earn money by providing data to train artificial intelligence systems through its DoorDash Tasks program.
In a Thursday blog post, the company unveiled DoorDash Tasks, a method for users to earn cash by completing tasks that feed its AI models.
“These are the kinds of real-world problems we’ve been solving for over a decade,” said Ethan Beatty, DoorDash’s GM of tasks.
The tasks range from innocuous to voluntarily intrusive. Examples include taking photos of restaurant food to help showcase menus to customers, photographing hotel entrances so future couriers can locate drop-off points, and assisting delivery bots that may have tipped over or otherwise lost their way.
DoorDash also piloted a stand-alone app for users to “complete activities like filming everyday tasks or recording themselves speaking in another language.”
The audio and video captured will be used to train DoorDash’s AI models as well as those of its partners. This data is likely shared with third parties in the retail, insurance, hospitality, and technology sectors.
An example task for a dishwashing submission required users to use a body camera pointed downward while scrubbing at least five dishes, holding each clean dish steady in the frame for several seconds.
This could be used to train a robotics firm’s robot slave army to recognize certain objects from a specific point of view.
DoorDash showcased an image of a sample grocery store task: taking pictures of current shelf stock.
Beatty explained the purpose: “It’s simple: you can’t deliver to a door you can’t find or get someone milk if you don’t know what’s on the shelf.” He added, “These are the kinds of real-world problems we’ve been solving for over a decade, and we realized the same capabilities that helped us could help other businesses too. The goal of Tasks is to help more businesses understand what’s happening on the ground and gather new insights, all while giving Dashers a new way to earn on their own terms.”
Pay for tasks is shown upfront and determined by the required effort and complexity.
Currently available in some U.S. areas (excluding California, New York City, Seattle, and Colorado), DoorDash reported over 2 million tasks completed since 2024.
