With over 30 billion images logged, Pokemon Go is using players' activity to train its spinout AI company to help GPS pinpointing: "I'm very focused on trying to re-create the real world"

Pokemon Go players are helping delivery robots reach consumers' doors, as Niantic Spatial says it's using images captured on the app to improve location pinpointing in partnership with companies like Coco Robotics.

Although Pokemon Go makes it clear in-game that it's collecting AR mapping data, with a notification prompting players to acknowledge that they'll help add to this pool for any given location, AI company Niantic Spatial – a spinout from developer and publisher Niantic – is apparently tapping into this collection now to… help delivery robots?

Speaking with MIT Technology Review, CTO Brian McClendon reveals as much.

Niantic Spatial's latest model is one that can reportedly pinpoint somebody's location on a map to the dot – we're talking a few centimeters – using images of landmarks, like buildings, in the vicinity.

The company wants to use this technology to help robots, like those deployed by Coco Robotics, navigate and deliver across Europe and the United States with greater precision, where GPS might be less reliable.

"Everybody thought that AR was the future, that AR glasses were coming, and then robots became the audience," as McClendon states. "The urban canyon is the worst place in the world for GPS. If you look at that blue dot on your phone, you'll often see it drift 50 meters, which puts you on a different block going a different direction on the wrong side of the street." That’s where Niantic Spatial's new tech would help.

How does it work, though? Well, for the last few years, the AI company has been using the aforementioned data from Pokemon Go to build an accurate visual positioning system.

As Niantic Spatial CEO John Hanke says, "It turns out that getting Pikachu to realistically run around and getting Coco's robot to safely and accurately move through the world is actually the same problem." Who would've thought?

Niantic Spatial has trained this system on some 30 billion images snapped by players in urban environments – the sorts of places that McClendon calls "the worst" for GPS.

"We had a million-plus locations around the world where we can locate you precisely," he explains. "We know where you're standing within several centimeters of accuracy and, most importantly, where you're looking." Sounds… ominous, but, hey, it works.

The company has even bigger aspirations, too – if the map-making improvements keep on rolling, it'll capture everything. "We're not there yet, but we want to be there," McClendon concludes. "I'm very focused on trying to re-create the real world."

That's one big task. It's certainly a unique way to go about things, too, with Charizard and Pikachu captures helping train super-advanced AI mapping tech.

It's important to note that this news has sparked fears of Niantic using players who were "unknowingly," as one viral online post puts it, feeding AI tech with personal data, but this doesn't seem to be accurate at all. As mentioned earlier, Pokemon Go does make it clear that images are banked as mapping data, and that's a fact that has been public information for quite some time now.

The delivery robot side of things, however, is new.

Are you still playing yourself? Be sure to browse through our roundup of the most up-to-date Pokemon Go codes for a little treat in-game.