Pokémon Go Scans May Have Been Used to Train US Military Drones

Pokémon Go player data was used to train an AI model that may be put to use helping US military drones and robots navigate war zones. 

The game awarded players points if they took a short video of them “scanning” certain points of interest as they walked around. In total, 30 billion of these scans were uploaded, DroneXL reported.  

Niantic used player scans to train AI in mapping of real world locations. The part of the company that did so was spun off into a new firm called Niantic Spatial, which in December announced a partnership with drone software company Vantor, a military contractor. 

Vantor was awarded a deal in February worth up to $217m to assist the US Army in training and rehearsing missions using high-precision, immersive 3D terrains. 

Niantic Spatial and Vantor described the partnership as producing “a comprehensive positioning solution that will enable air and ground platforms to navigate and coordinate precisely in GPS-denied environments.”

Niantic Spatial has acknowledged that players’ ground scans were “one component” of training its own AI systems but stressed that it no longer receives data from Pokémon Go since the sale to Scopely.

The company said its models “are being used across a range of sectors to help AI understand and navigate the physical world” and claimed no player scans had been shared with Vantor.

“Now as part of Scopely, Pokémon Go data is not shared with Niantic Spatial,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to Kotaku. 

“AR Scans collected through Pokémon Go were submitted voluntarily by players who opted into the feature and were subject to the applicable Terms of Service and Privacy Policy at the time. The discontinuation of AR scanning and the end of data sharing with Niantic Spatial were part of the transition planning associated with Pokémon Go‘s move to Scopely.”

It added: “While we have an agreement with Vantor, announced last December, it is still in its very early stages, and sharing this data is not part of the agreement.”