\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHave you unknowingly trained a robot to deliver pizza?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Remember back in 2016 when Pok\u00e9mon<\/a> could be anywhere, at any time? Pikachus and Charizards lay just beyond the reach of your phone, a peek into a world of childhood fantasy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Using real-world locations and AR, players can interact with their favourites<\/a>, battle it out<\/a> and even take their team to the gym.\u00a0<\/p>\n The urge to quench millennial nostalgia was strong; At its peak, it hosted 200 million users<\/a>. Like most good things in the world, its real, far more evil, purpose was recently revealed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Niantic, the company behind the popular app<\/a>, was using each moment of gameplay to build street-level images, GPS data, and movement patterns.\u00a0<\/p>\n The map comprises of 30 billion images and trillions of data points, thanks to countless in-game battles, gyms and poke-stops.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, Niantic is taking this data to train their AI delivery robots. With unrestricted access to unique 3D scans of parks, shopfronts, monuments, and every crevice and corner a robot could trip on, Pok\u00e9mon GO players have unknowingly created the greatest data set for robotic navigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n With naive optimism, players have done a job that would have otherwise cost millions and taken far longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Teaming up with tech-startup Coco, Niantic\u2019s 3D scans of our cities will be fed to a fleet of robot delivery drivers, little boxes on wheels that, thanks to the in-depth scans, have a greater advantage over their competitors.\u00a0<\/p>\n Privacy concerns have long clouded the AI discussion. Most recently, Meta\u2019s AI glasses <\/a>were revealed to be sending all footage filmed with them to an external office for review.\u00a0<\/p>\n