Pokémon Go has been secretly capturing player data for years to train a gigantic AI model that could be dangerous.
The players of Pokémon Go – an augmented reality (AR) game popularized worldwide in 2016 – are helping to train a artificial intelligence (AI) model that aims to map the planet.
In a statement on November 12, Niantic (the company responsible for the game) announced that it is using data collected from its AR applications to build a “large geospatial model” (LGM).
Just as large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT analyze text to predict words, LGMs use geographic data to infer characteristics of buildings and physical spaces.
The company revealed that it has already extracted data from more than 10 million digitized locations around the world, with users adding around one million new scans every week.
According to Niantic, the new model will unite these local networks to create a global understanding of geographic locations, allowing computers to not only understand physical spaces, but also interact with them in innovative ways.
“LGM will enable computers to not only perceive and understand physical spaces, but also interact with them in new ways, forming a critical component of AR glasses and other fields, including robotics, content creation and autonomous systems“, reads the statement, cited by .
Innovate for good… and for bad
Niantic’s LGM uses its Visual Positioning System, which analyzes images from video cameras. smartphones to identify objects with centimeter precision – which can be useful in wars.
As “Live Science” writes, “this may seem like a strange task,” but only because our existence in the physical world has already exposed us to countless examples that have helped us build a robust spatial understanding.
Although many players are not surprised by the collection of their own data to develop this technology, critics have expressed concerns about possible uses of this LGM.
Elise Thomassenior analyst at Institute for Strategic Dialoguewarned through a post on the social network X that systems like Niantic’s can be used to military purposesincluding weapons “to kill people”.
“It is so incredibly coded for the 2020s that Pokémon Go is being used to build an AI system that will almost inevitably end up being used by automated weapons systems to kill people,” the expert wrote.
It’s so incredibly 2020s coded that Pokemon Go is being used to build an AI system which will almost inevitably end up being used by automated weapons systems to kill people.
— Elise Thomas (@elisethoma5)
Critics worry that some of the potential applications of Niantic’s technology may be far from benign, raising ethical issues on the application of this technology.
