Pokémon GO Players Help Train Niantic's New Geospatial AI
Niantic has announced plans to develop a Large Geospatial Model (LGM) using data collected from Pokémon GO players' PokéStop scans. This AI model aims to help computers understand and navigate the physical world by integrating billions of images and location scans. The LGM will combine local models to create comprehensive 3D images of structures, enhancing navigation and spatial understanding. Niantic's existing Visual Positioning System (VPS) has already mapped 10 million locations, but the LGM requires significantly more data to be fully realized.