A report delving into the partnership between Niantic Spatial and US-based military technology company Vantor claims that data collected from Pokemon Go players could be used to train military drones.
As noted by DroneXL, this report comes from the Dutch newspaper Trouw. Earlier this month, Trouw reported that data collected by Pokemon Go players could be used by technology company Vantor to improve military drone navigation, although users were never told exactly what the data would be used for.
There are concerns about Niantic Spatial's partnership with Vantor, a technology company that works with the US military
Niantic Spatial and Vantor entered into a partnership last December. Niantic Spatial announced that the partnership would help improve drone navigation, to compensate for when drones lack GPS data or when signals are compromised and jammed. There was no mention of Pokemon Go player data being used as part of this, but of course this is where Niantic Spatial gets its experience with GPS technology. There was also no mention of Niantic Spatial assisting with any military efforts, but Vantor has been working with the US military for some time (previously under its old name, Maxar Intelligence), and was awarded a new contract as recently as February.
The data is said to include 30 billion photos taken by Pokemon Go players. These would have been taken from videos, which would have been taken as part of field research to unlock items.
As Trouw reports, it's the AI system provided by Niantic Spatial that Vantor uses, and if Vantor then uses that AI system in its work for the US military, then there's a very real possibility that Pokemon Go player data is part of that. Vantor has denied directly using Pokémon Go data, but was “reluctant to say” whether the AI it uses was trained on this data.
For its part, Niantic Spatial admitted that Pokemon Go data was used on an “early version” of the system, but defended its use, saying it was what players agreed to. “We are committed, together with all our customers and partners, to ensuring that Niantic Spatial's products are used responsibly, with respect for human rights and ethical principles,” the publication says.
The fact that the systems provided by Niantic Spatial are AI-based complicates matters. Notoriously, it has been difficult to pinpoint what an AI tool has been trained on, and companies have been evasive about having their AI tools trained on copyrighted material. Now, with a tool potentially used by the US military trained at least in part on videos taken by unwitting gamers, we're entering new — and troubling — territory.
- Released
-
July 6, 2016
- ESRB
-
e
- Engine
-
Unit
