Over the past eight years, Pokemon Go players have played a significant role in making Niantic's game one of the most popular mobile titles. It turns out that these players have also been assisting Niantic in constructing a 3D model of the world, which is now being enhanced by AI into a Large Geospatial Model. As reported by 404 Media, Niantic quietly announced this development earlier this month. These efforts have apparently been ongoing for quite some time, with the company aiming to "enable computers to perceive, understand, and navigate the physical world." Niantic also draws a parallel between Large Geospatial Models and the Large Language Models employed by OpenAI's GPT, Grok, and similar systems.
The unique ability of Pokemon Go players to access areas that vehicles cannot has provided Niantic with views of buildings and regions that other models have not yet captured. Niantic notes that previous models could only identify the fronts of buildings, but the Large Geospatial Models are teaching computers to recognize all sides of structures on a global scale. One way players have inadvertently contributed to this project is through the Pokemon Playgrounds feature, which allows them to leave a Pokemon at a specific location for other players to find. Niantic reports that 10 million locations have been scanned worldwide through this feature, with 1 million new scans added weekly.
According to the model's map on Niantic's website, the company is still far from mapping the entire globe. Most of the captured locations are in North America and Europe, while Africa, Australia, and a significant part of Asia remain largely unmapped. South America also has a considerable distance to go before it is fully captured by Niantic's AI model.
Beyond Pokemon Go, the franchise continues to flourish. This week, Pokemon Gold and Silver are celebrating their 25th anniversary with a new line of merchandise. Additionally, Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket, another mobile game in the franchise, garnered 30 million downloads in its first week. The next installment in the series, Pokemon Legends Z-A, is slated for release in 2025.
Source link: https://www.gamespot.com
