"Microsoft makes use of Blender to generate synthetic 3D models and images of humans that can be used to train AI models. For researchers, having access to high quality free/opensource 3D software has proven to be of great benefit for scientific projects." Here's what they linked:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2019/0...

Am I in the minority where all I see in this synthetic human stuff is surveillance and propaganda usage?

What other benefits are there?