Niantic Spatial's 30 Billion Pokémon Go Scans Allegedly Fed Military Drone Navigation
Updated
Updated · NL Times · Jun 6
Niantic Spatial's 30 Billion Pokémon Go Scans Allegedly Fed Military Drone Navigation
2 articles · Updated · NL Times · Jun 6
Summary
Nearly 30 billion scans from hundreds of millions of Pokémon Go players were allegedly used to train Niantic Spatial’s 3D navigation model, which partner Vantor plans to deploy in military drones and robots.
Late last year, Niantic Spatial and defense software firm Vantor announced the deployment deal; Vantor denied using Pokémon Go data directly but would not say whether the model behind its system was trained on those scans.
Niantic Spatial had already told Trouw in an earlier inquiry that Pokémon Go scans trained an “early version” of the model for a separate Coco Robotics partnership, while saying players had agreed to the terms and that it operates ethically.
Dutch players and ethics experts said gamers were misled, warning that even indoor scans may have fed commercial and military systems and calling for EU rules on data use and less reliance on foreign navigation infrastructure.