Pokemon Go players are actually training a giant AI model [Video]

In 2016, Pokemon Go was about as wholesome as video games got, as it largely involved walking around your neighborhood and meeting up with strangers. In 2024, nothing is allowed to be wholesome, apparently.

Based on a blog post by developer Niantic as well as news reports from the likes of 404 Media and Garbage Day, it is now known that Pokemon Go players, whether they knew it or not, have been helping to train a large geospatial artificial intelligence. Tied into something called the Visual Positioning System (or VPS), Niantic’s blog post said the idea is to help AI learn about complex three dimensional spaces, in a way that can be used for future augmented reality or even robotic applications.

The technical details may fly over the head of many who read Niantic’s blog post, but the easiest way to think of it is that certain player actions in Pokemon Gohave been training this geospatial AI in the …