Pokémon Go Players Unwittingly Helped Train AI Navigation Tech for Military Drones and Delivery Robots

Niantic Spatial, an AI company spun out of Pokémon Go developer Niantic in May 2025, used billions of real-world images captured by Pokémon Go players and Scaniverse users to train AI navigation systems intended for delivery robots and potentially military drones. The training data consisted of public scans of statues and fountains, and the company says the resulting models do not contain the original images. The spinout occurred after Niantic sold Pokémon Go to Saudi-backed publisher Scopely.