This is wild.
143 million people thought they were catching Pokรฉmon. They were actually building one of the largest real-world visual datasets in AI history.
Niantic just disclosed that photos and AR scans collected through Pokรฉmon Go have produced a dataset of over 30 billion real-world images. The company is now using that data to power visual navigation AI for delivery robots.
Players didn't just walk around with their phones. They scanned landmarks, storefronts, parks, and sidewalks from every angle, at every time of day, in lighting and weather conditions that staged photography would never capture. They documented the physical world at a scale no mapping company with a fleet of vehicles could have replicated on the same timeline or budget.
Niantic collected this systematically, data point by data point, across eight years, while users thought the only thing at stake was catching a rare Charizard.
The most valuable AI training datasets in the world aren't being assembled in data centers. They're being built by people who have no idea they're building them.
1st world problem but imagine you feel like you're not qualified and get massive imposter syndrome but its never validated because you get hired for everything you apply for so you never learn how to confidently talk about your fake skills in a way you might need in the future
this is gonna sound so fucked but i just got accepted for an internship at a place that i actually really want to intern at but i lowkey wish they rejected me because i feel like i never have a real job seeking experience bc every time i apply somewhere i get hired
Who would have thought that the cure to my twitter addiction was moving to korea for 5 months and not wanting to be thought of as primarily a kpop stan