Pokémon Go data trained AI that could assist military drones in war zones

Pokemon Go became a worldwide hit after its launch – but players may not know that their game data trained AI that will potentially help military drones during war. Photograph: EnchantedFairy/ View image in fullscreen Pokemon Go became a worldwide hit after its launch – but players may not know that their game data trained AI that will potentially help military drones during war. Photograph: EnchantedFairy/ Pokémon Go data trained AI that could assist military drones in war zones Location scans from the globally popular augmented reality game have helped train AI to recognise and interpret physical spaces Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our email, free app or daily news podcast An AI model trained on data collected from users of Pokémon Go will potentially help military drones find their location in war zones. Pokémon Go, a 2016 augmented reality mobile game, allowed players to find and catch Pokémon in the real world using the cameras on their mobile phones, and exploded in popularity. In 2018, the company reported having more than 800m downloads worldwide. A 2021 update to the game introduced Pokéstops, which gave players in-game rewards for scanning real locations using their devices. It required users to opt in and upload the recording. Niantic, which created Pokémon in partnership with Nintendo, collected users’ location scan data before the company sold its gaming division in 2025. The historical scans were used to train the company’s AI models to recognise and interpret spaces in the physical world, as first reported . the Australia emailNiantic Spatial – a spin-off company from Niantic – announced its partnership with Vantor, a company that specialises in spatial detection software for drones, including those used , in December. Both companies told Guardian Australia that ground scans from the game were not provided to Vantor as part of the partnership, but the scans from Pokémon Go were used to train Niantic’s foundation models. “AR Scans collected through Pokémon Go were submitted voluntarily ,” the Niantic Spatial spokesperson said. Both companies said the partnership was still in its early stages. Niantic sold its video game division to Saudi Arabian-owned Scopely for US$3.5bn in 2025. Here’s what it revealed about trust in the technology Sydney academic used AI to write SMH opinion piece urging students to avoid using tech to ‘cut corners’ UK minister visits Australia for ‘lessons’ before expected British social media crackdown Melbourne psychiatrist refuses new patients who don’t consent to AI note-taking Canvas hack: is it ever a good idea to pay a ransom, and what happens to the data?