Did you play Pokémon Go? You didn’t know it, but you were training AI to map the world

You in all probability did not understand it, however in the event you performed or are nonetheless enjoying Pokémon Go (there are greater than half 1,000,000 lively gamers), you have been serving to practice an AI-powered geospatial mannequin that goals to map the world.

A weblog publish from Niantic, the software program developer behind the favored sport, explains the way it’s engaged on “a big geospatial mannequin to attain spatial intelligence” and attempting to construct a “visible positioning system” to know the world round us — and it is utilizing information from Pokémon Go.

To make clear, Niantic is saying that identical to information on the internet trains AI fashions, the AI mannequin it is constructing wants to know 3D areas. An immense quantity of knowledge and images of 3D areas can be found because of Pokémon Go gamers creeping around the globe. 

Niantic explains it like this: A neighborhood AI mapping mannequin would possibly perceive {that a} church stands at a particular place, but it surely’s possible solely seen the entrance of that location and may’t clarify what the remainder of the church seems like. With information from Pokémon Go gamers, who’ve possible walked round many church buildings and trekked areas that automobiles cannot attain (and photographed these areas), the AI, now has guess at what a church usually seems like.

The corporate additionally identified that it not too long ago rolled out a brand new function for the sport known as Pokémon Playground that permits you to place a creature at a sure real-world spot for others to see. Which means putting the character and viewing it later conveniently includes utilizing your digital camera, taking photographs from a number of angles, and sending the ensuing picture to Niantic. 

Based on Niantic, it presently has 10 million scanned places around the globe, with a million of these activated and accessible to be used in its VPS service. It added that it receives about 1 million contemporary scans every week, every containing a whole lot of photographs.

Niantic says it’ll use this information for functions like AR glasses, robotics, content material creation, and autonomous methods. So, not solely did the corporate make cash promoting in-game objects to gamers, however can also be going to make cash on the maps these gamers helped make.