Pokémon Go has been quietly harvesting participant information to coach AI

Key Takeaways

Niantic is growing a “Massive Geospatial Mannequin” (LGM) from information collected by gamers in its video games like Pokémon Go.
The mannequin learns from scans utilizing a Visible Place System (VPS), which may use a single picture to find out its place on a 3D map.
It is unclear how lengthy Niantic has been amassing this location information for.

Do you keep in mind taking part in Pokémon Go again within the day and all the encircling hype? All of the enjoyable adventures of catching Pokémon round your neighborhood with family and friends? Niantic actually does.

Niantic is the developer behind Pokémon Go, and it has recently announced that it is constructing a brand new “Massive Geospatial Mannequin” (LGM) utilizing thousands and thousands of scans taken by Pokémon Go gamers on their smartphones (by way of IGN). How does the LGM study from these scans? Effectively, that is because of Niantic’s new Visible Positioning System (VPS).

“Over the previous 5 years, Niantic has centered on constructing our Visible Positioning System (VPS), which makes use of a single picture from a telephone to find out its place and orientation utilizing a 3D map constructed from individuals scanning attention-grabbing areas in our video games and Scaniverse,” Niantic mentioned in a press release.

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How does Niantic’s LMG work precisely?

A number of information and plenty of coaching

You have probably heard of a big language mannequin (LLM) mannequin earlier than, like ChatGPT for instance. Its AI mannequin is skilled on huge quantities of present textual content so it will possibly produce fairly regular sounding and coherent textual content when the consumer prompts it to. An LGM operates equally. It is skilled on what actual world locations appear to be, corresponding to a church or park, and might use that information to supply info on locations it hasn’t seen but. Niantic says the LGM will assist computer systems understand and work together with bodily areas in new methods, and can be utilized in AR glasses, robotics, content material creation, and autonomous techniques.

So how does Niantic get all this location information? Effectively, its video games, after all. Pokémon Go remains to be a well-liked cell recreation, and it has customers touring and pointing their telephone at locations attempting to catch Pokémon. These location scans get despatched again to Niantic, although its unclear how lengthy it has been amassing them for. The benefit of Niantic’s Pokémon Go is that it will get location information different providers like Google Maps cannot.

To map out and create areas with AI, you want extra than simply the angle of a automobile on the street. You want the angle of a pedestrian at road degree taking a look at locations and seeing various things, and that is precisely what Pokémon Go gamers unwittingly ship. I have never performed Pokémon Go in years, but it surely’s wild to assume I’ll have contributed my very own information to creating an AI product like this. I assume the phrases of service I did not learn had loads in it.