Human labor has been unwittingly harvested and exploited for some time in online spaces. Think training AI models through solving Captchas or on massive amounts of creative works. There has been relatively little attention to the same logic in hybrid urban/digital spaces and situations. 404 Media reports that Pokémon Go players have been contributing data to train a so-called AI “Large Geospatial Model”. This model should serve automated systems to navigate the real world and power movement of robots.
Niantic explains that a Large Geospatial Model, or LGM, aims to do the same for the physical world, a technology it says “will enable computers not only to perceive and understand physical spaces, but also to interact with them in new ways, forming a critical component of AR glasses and fields beyond, including robotics, content creation and autonomous systems. As we move from phones to wearable technology linked to the real world, spatial intelligence will become the world’s future operating system.”
I think this is interesting because we’re seeing something that has been going on for quite some time: people training computers to work in physical spaces. If you buy a Tesla, you are enrolled as a driving remote sensor for the company to train, improve and power their autonomous vehicle aspirations. If you leave reviews of restaurants or shops or other real world places, you contribute to the accuracy and net worth of Google maps, Apple Maps and so on. Even by simply walking around in the city streets, you are being counted and tracked, and contribute to a real estate intelligence sector where data analytics for urban commercial development is worth a lot.
This mobilization of free labor under the guise of play has been termed ‘playbor’ (Tiziana Terranova, Julian Kücklich). Now also coming to you in hybrid reality games. No part of everyday life shall remain untouched by commercialization through digital media.
Link to article on 404 Media >>