Pokédrones

Back in December 2024, Niantic posted about a large geospacial model they were building using data from Pokémon Go. That led to a lot of online talk, with takes ranging from: Well yeah, that’s what we figured they were doing with the “Scan a Pokéstop to build better AR models” feature. to Watch out! Niantic is building a global AR model using every image that passes in front of your phone’s camera! I was in the “of course that’s what it’s for” camp. When the game rolled out the Pokéstop scanning feature a few years earlier, it seemed obvious that it was training 3D machine vision, like how all the “pick the squares with bicycles” CAPTCHAs are obviously training for self-driving cars. I figured there was a good chance someone would use it for some harmful purpose or another, probably surveillance, so I skipped those tasks. Anyway, after a week or so, Niantic updated the article to clarify* that it was using the deliberate Pokéstop scans in public places for Pokémon Playground, not any…