{"id":1829583,"date":"2026-03-16T16:45:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1829583"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:45:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:45:04","slug":"if-youre-still-playing-pokemon-go-youre-helping-train-data-gobbling-gps-ai-for-niantic-spatial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1829583","title":{"rendered":"If you&#8217;re still playing Pok\u00e9mon Go, you&#8217;re helping train data-gobbling GPS AI for Niantic Spatial"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/pokemon-go\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Pok\u00e9mon Go<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">If you&#8217;re still playing Pok\u00e9mon Go, you&#8217;re helping train data-gobbling GPS AI for Niantic Spatial<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">Mapping real-world routes.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Croagunk-Pokemon-GO.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Pok\u00e9mon Go - catching Croagunk\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"Croagunk-Pokemon-GO.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Niantic<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Fran Ruiz avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/fran-j-ruiz-author.png?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Fran Ruiz avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"fran-j-ruiz-author.png\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/fran-ruiz\">Fran Ruiz<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-03-16T16:45:04+00:00\">March 16, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/pokemon-go-helps-train-gps-ai-for-niantic-spatial?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          2 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"5001c98f-6ba3-465d-a4db-3693a6ce7190\" data-name=\"Poku00e9mon Go\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Poku00e9mon Go\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Poku00e9mon Go\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Poku00e9mon Go\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Poku00e9mon Go\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Pok\u00e9mon Go\" title=\"Follow Pok\u00e9mon Go\"><br \/>\n  Follow Pok\u00e9mon Go<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/as-ai-threatens-to-make-everything-more-expensive-are-you-happy-if-it-takes-longer-for-the-next-console-generation-to-begin\">Everyone in tech<\/a> seems to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sega-acknowledges-strong-resistance-as-it-turns-to-ai-but-says-itll-use-technology-appropriately\">be into AI<\/a> these days, developer Niantic doesn&#8217;t want to be left behind. With the help of images captured through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/pokemon-go\">Pok\u00e9mon Go<\/a> app, the company is helping its spinout <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nianticspatial.com\/about\">Niantic Spatial<\/a> endeavour, which focuses on &#8220;geospatial AI&#8221; and digital maps of the physical world. Niantic Spatial&#8217;s long-term goal is to enable machines, robots, and AR glasses to understand, navigate, and interact with the physical world with centimeter-level precision.<\/p>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamesradar.com\/games\/pokemon\/with-over-30-billion-images-logged-pokemon-go-is-using-players-activity-to-train-its-spinout-ai-company-to-help-gps-pinpointing-im-very-focused-on-trying-to-re-create-the-real-world\/\">GamesRadar<\/a>, we&#8217;ve learned about how Niantic is using images collected through the Pok\u00e9mon Go app to perfect and reshape digital maps of our surroundings. As always, the payment for free-to-play games and apps isn&#8217;t immediately obvious, and before you start complaining about being misled, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nianticlabs.com\/terms\">Niantic&#8217;s term and conditions<\/a> do state images &#8220;are banked as mapping data.&#8221; And per this new report, it seems we know precisely what this data is being used for.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/2026\/03\/10\/1134099\/how-pokemon-go-is-helping-robots-deliver-pizza-on-time\/\">MIT Technology Review&#8217;s article on Niantic&#8217;s AI spinout<\/a>, which includes chatter with CTO Brian McClendon, is quite revealing. It elaborates how Niantic Spatial is collaborating with companies like Coco Robotics, &#8220;a startup that deploys last-mile delivery robots in a number of cities across the US and Europe.&#8221; The partnership started when &#8220;everybody thought that AR was the future.&#8221; While that didn&#8217;t pan out, it doesn&#8217;t mean AR is useless.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Spritzee, Swirlix, Dedenne and Sylveon on a Pok\u00e9mon Go background.\" height=\"782\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Pokemon-Go-Very-Fairy-Timed-Research-Header.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7774936061381075\" width=\"1390\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Spritzee, Swirlix, Dedenne and Sylveon on a Pok\u00e9mon Go background.\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-lightbox data-uri=\"Pokemon-Go-Very-Fairy-Timed-Research-Header.jpg\" height=\"782\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7774936061381075\" width=\"1390\"><figcaption><span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer\/The Pok\u00e9mon Company<\/cite><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;Niantic Spatial has trained its model on 30 billion images captured in urban environments.&#8221; Usually, the images themselves, together with precise metadata, can analyse recognisable environments, landmarks, iconic buildings, and whatnot to better pinpoint when and where exactly the mobile phones took them. &#8220;Maps are not only becoming more detailed; they are being used more and more by machines,&#8221; says McClendon.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Whereas other companies are fighting over LLMs and the (re)creation of information from scratch, Niantic is moving in a different direction. &#8220;I&#8217;m very focused on trying to re-create the real world,&#8221; concluded McClendon. This may come as a surprise to some users, however, that did not read the small print and will be surprised to learn how the data from their Pok\u00e9mon adventures could be used to create a Large Geospatial Model with applications that could be used by companies such as Amazon, DoorDash, or even the military industrial complex.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/as-ai-threatens-to-make-everything-more-expensive-are-you-happy-if-it-takes-longer-for-the-next-console-generation-to-begin\">Everyone in tech<\/a> seems to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sega-acknowledges-strong-resistance-as-it-turns-to-ai-but-says-itll-use-technology-appropriately\">be into AI<\/a> these days, developer Niantic doesn&#8217;t want to be left behind. With the help of images captured through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/pokemon-go\">Pok\u00e9mon Go<\/a> app, the company is helping its spinout <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nianticspatial.com\/about\">Niantic Spatial<\/a> endeavour, which focuses on &#8220;geospatial AI&#8221; and digital maps of the physical world. Niantic Spatial&#8217;s long-term goal is to enable machines, robots, and AR glasses to understand, navigate, and interact with the physical world with centimeter-level precision.<\/p>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamesradar.com\/games\/pokemon\/with-over-30-billion-images-logged-pokemon-go-is-using-players-activity-to-train-its-spinout-ai-company-to-help-gps-pinpointing-im-very-focused-on-trying-to-re-create-the-real-world\/\">GamesRadar<\/a>, we&#8217;ve learned about how Niantic is using images collected through the Pok\u00e9mon Go app to perfect and reshape digital maps of our surroundings. As always, the payment for free-to-play games and apps isn&#8217;t immediately obvious, and before you start complaining about being misled, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nianticlabs.com\/terms\">Niantic&#8217;s term and conditions<\/a> do state images &#8220;are banked as mapping data.&#8221; And per this new report, it seems we know precisely what this data is being used for.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/2026\/03\/10\/1134099\/how-pokemon-go-is-helping-robots-deliver-pizza-on-time\/\">MIT Technology Review&#8217;s article on Niantic&#8217;s AI spinout<\/a>, which includes chatter with CTO Brian McClendon, is quite revealing. It elaborates how Niantic Spatial is collaborating with companies like Coco Robotics, &#8220;a startup that deploys last-mile delivery robots in a number of cities across the US and Europe.&#8221; The partnership started when &#8220;everybody thought that AR was the future.&#8221; While that didn&#8217;t pan out, it doesn&#8217;t mean AR is useless.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Spritzee, Swirlix, Dedenne and Sylveon on a Pok\u00e9mon Go background.\" height=\"782\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Pokemon-Go-Very-Fairy-Timed-Research-Header.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7774936061381075\" width=\"1390\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Spritzee, Swirlix, Dedenne and Sylveon on a Pok\u00e9mon Go background.\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-lightbox data-uri=\"Pokemon-Go-Very-Fairy-Timed-Research-Header.jpg\" height=\"782\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7774936061381075\" width=\"1390\"><figcaption><span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer\/The Pok\u00e9mon Company<\/cite><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;Niantic Spatial has trained its model on 30 billion images captured in urban environments.&#8221; Usually, the images themselves, together with precise metadata, can analyse recognisable environments, landmarks, iconic buildings, and whatnot to better pinpoint when and where exactly the mobile phones took them. &#8220;Maps are not only becoming more detailed; they are being used more and more by machines,&#8221; says McClendon.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Whereas other companies are fighting over LLMs and the (re)creation of information from scratch, Niantic is moving in a different direction. &#8220;I&#8217;m very focused on trying to re-create the real world,&#8221; concluded McClendon. This may come as a surprise to some users, however, that did not read the small print and will be surprised to learn how the data from their Pok\u00e9mon adventures could be used to create a Large Geospatial Model with applications that could be used by companies such as Amazon, DoorDash, or even the military industrial complex.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Pok\u00e9mon Go If you&#8217;re still playing Pok\u00e9mon Go, you&#8217;re helping train data-gobbling GPS AI for Niantic Spatial Mapping real-world routes. Image credit: Niantic News by Fran Ruiz Contributor Published on March 16, 2026 2 comments Follow Pok\u00e9mon Go Everyone in tech seems to be into AI these days, developer Niantic doesn&#8217;t want to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1829583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1829583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1829583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1829583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1829583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}