How Pokémon Go Players Helped Train AI to Navigate the Real World

Niantic, the creator of hit AR games like Pokémon Go and Ingress, announced it is leveraging data collected from millions of players to develop an AI model for navigating the physical world.

In a recent blog post, the company introduced its "Large Geospatial Model" (LGM), designed to enable computers to perceive, understand, and interact with physical spaces.

Niantic envisions LGM as a foundation for AR glasses, robotics, content creation, and autonomous systems, marking a shift toward wearable technology powered by spatial intelligence.

Trained on millions of geolocated images, the AI predicts environments similarly to how large language models generate coherent text.

This transformation of player data into a geospatial AI system mirrors the unforeseen potential of the data collected through Pokémon Go and other platforms.