PokemonGo Users Trained The Next Generation Of Killer Robots

Over the weekend, viral social media posts have amplified reporting that Niantic, the developer of PokemonGo, is using its acquired database of over 30 Billion crowdsourced images of the world to power "visual navigation for delivery robots." Thousands of users are rightfully outraged of unwittingly having to help train what appear to be AI models, as big tech proponents attempt to downplay the implications.

But the reports omit that Niantic has sold its gaming division in 2025 and rebranded the remaining company as Niantic Spatial: a firm developing a large geospatial model allowing for centimeter-accurate navigation that is selling its services to major US Defense contractors.

Given Niantic founders' history of developing technology for the US military intelligence complex, it may be worth asking whether the outrage over Niantic's robot training plans may have been averted had the media adequately reported on the history of the developers of a gaming app that millions of people unwittingly installed on their phones.

Niantic's Rebrand

In 2025, Niantic, Inc., operating under the brand Niantic Labs, sold its gaming division to the mobile game firm Scopely and announced the rebranding to Niantic Spatial: a platform to "lead the future of geospatial AI by building spatial intelligence that helps people better understand, navigate, and engage with the physical world."

According to the press release, "Niantic Spatial is powered by a third-generation digital map that captures the content of the world at a level of fidelity never before achieved and enables both humans and machines to understand it in ways never before possible."

The Niantic Spatial Platform was announced in 2024 and allows for "centimeter-level precision." Using a Visual Positioning System (VPS), it has evolved from a consumer technology into an enterprise-grade solution officially designed to enhance manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, construction, tourism, entertainment, and education by enabling precise tracking, AR-guided navigation, and real-time 3D spatial visualization, Niantic says.

But a technology that can navigate automated robotics in a field without access to GPS has much more nefarious uses than Amazon scout bots dropping off your latest purchase.

In December 2026, Niantic partnered with Vantor – formerly known as Maxar Technologies – a major US defense contractor offering geospatial intelligence to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency within the Department of Defense, now known as the Department of War.

Vantor's customers also include other military contractors, such as the US Defense technology firm Anduril, which focuses on automated warfare, as well as the defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

The software Vantor sells includes a product called Raptor, which enables drones to navigate and extract target coordinates using onboard cameras.

The partnership with Niantic now pairs Vantor's Raptor aerial systems software with Niantic's on-the-ground imaging, taking its accuracy from roughly one meter to the centimeter level accuracy advertised by Niantic to provide GPS redundancy for autonomous and "mixed reality operations," forming a comprehensive "air-to-ground" navigation system.

"The partnership addresses a critical vulnerability in modern operations," Niantic writes on its blog. "GPS unavailability, spoofing, interference, and jamming. When satellite signals are compromised, autonomous systems and field teams lose their ability to orient, coordinate or maintain accurate situational awareness."

GPS interference has grown into a major problem for modern warfare beginning with the war in Ukraine – an issue now amplified in the US' war on Iran.

“The rise of autonomous and mixed reality systems is reshaping our world, but these systems only work if they can maintain precise location intelligence when GPS is down,” said Peter Wilczynski, Vantor’s Chief Product Officer.

On a one-pager of its website, Niantic advertises its services to "support key defense and mission themes," including real-time awareness through centimeter-level VPS localization and 3D sensor fusion, faster decisions with intuitive AR/VR interfaces that reduce cognitive load, and autonomous execution via AI-driven mapping and dynamic object tracking.

That a technology that could be used to build a map of the world would find its most lucrative application in the military industrial complex should not be a surprise.

Niantic's Defense Origins

Niantic was founded in 2010 by John Hanke, co-founder of Google Earth and former product lead of Google's geo division, which includes Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Streetview.

Under Hanke's lead, Google faced its largest data privacy scandal in history, known as the WiSpy scandal: Google StreetView cars were secretly collecting data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks they passed and exporting that data back to the US.

The exported data included so-called payload data, meaning the actual content of people's internet traffic, including emails, passwords, medical information, dating site activity, browsing history, and audio/video files. As a result, Google was fined by multiple countries around the world, including Spain, Germany, and the United States.

Prior to founding Niantic, Hanke served at the US State Department and went on to develop a software called Keyhole: a project primarily funded by InQTel, the venture capital arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, that rendered 3D representations of Earth based on satellite imagery. Keyhole was used for US military operations from its early beginnings, such as to support US missions in Iraq. It was eventually acquired by Google and turned into Google Earth.

Altogether, Niantic brings together decades of experience in geo-intelligence development for military purposes.

The video game designer Gilman Louie, who co-founded the CIA's InQTel, sits on the board of Niantic as well as on the board of Maxar Technologies – now rebranded as Vantor – according to his profile.

Niantic's CTO, Phil Kelsin, was a co-founder at Keyhole together with Hanke, after spending over a decade as a senior software developer at E-Systems, according to his LinkedIn profile – a US military contractor that was eventually acquired by Rayethon, the former leader in guided missile technologies.

Similarly, Keyhole co-founder and now-CTO at Niantic Spatial Brian McCledon reportedly began his career at the DARPA funded Silicon Graphics, which developed 3D graphics for US Defense systems, according to his Wikipedia page.

That millions of people ended up installing a gaming app built by experts in automated warfare technology is not necessarily a failure of critical thinking on its user's part. It's rather a failure of main stream media, which uncritically hyped Niantic's PokemonGo as a software designed for fun, not war – without warning of the dangers.

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