140 Million Pokémon Go Players Unknowingly Work for AI for Free? Niantic Uses Game Crowdsourcing to Collect 300 Billion Real-World Images for Positioning System Training

Over a decade, 140 million Pokémon Go players have unknowingly contributed 300 billion real-world images to Niantic as free data for AI positioning system training. These images feature centimeter-level positioning, covering millions of high-value global locations and dynamic changes across different weather and time periods.

This data is used to train the Visual Positioning System (VPS), which achieves precise positioning in GPS-challenged areas like urban canyons or underground tunnels. Currently, the system has helped Coco Robotics' delivery robots boost efficiency, completing over 500,000 deliveries.

Players thought they were catching Pokémon, but they were actually part of a 10-year global crowdsourced mapping project. Niantic had long embedded this model into its core strategy, with its valuation once hitting $9 billion—echoing the industry adage: 'If something is free, you are the product.'