Pokémon Go players unwittingly contributed to tech with military drone uses

Niantic Spatial, an AI company spun out of Pokémon Go developer Niantic in May 2025, is utilizing billions of real-world images captured by millions of Pokémon Go players to develop navigation technologies. These technologies are intended for delivery robots and potentially military drones. The company aims to create a "large geospatial model," a 3D representation of the physical world, by training AI systems on geolocated images provided by users scanning real-world locations. This data was collected from players incentivized to capture short smartphone videos of neighborhoods and landmarks. Niantic Spatial stated that the "ground scans" were a component to train their "real-world foundation models," which learn to recognize and interpret physical spaces. The spokesperson clarified that the models are the product of this training and not a means of accessing the underlying scans, which focused on public points of interest like statues and fountains. Niantic, the original developer of Pokémon Go, sold its licensed games, including Pokémon Go, to the Saudi-backed video game publisher Scopely prior to Niantic Spatial's spin-off.