Pokemon Go Data Likely Used by US Military for Warfare, Claims Whistleblower
Quick Look
Google whistleblower Zach Vorhies claims Pokemon Go player data was likely shared with the US military to augment satellite mapping for potential warfare applications, enabling a more detailed battlefield picture.
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Why It Matters
Google whistleblower Zach Vorhies claims that data from the popular augmented reality game Pokemon Go, released in 2016, was likely shared with the US military. This data, gathered by millions of players worldwide, could be used to enhance satellite mapping and provide ground-level battlefield information.
Ground-level footage from around the globe which millions of Pokemon Go users gathered over the years was likely fed to the US military, augmenting its satellite mapping for potential use in warfare, Google whistleblower Zach Vorhies has told RT.
Released in 2016 by San Francisco-based firm Niantic, Pokemon Go became one of the gaming industry’s first successful forays into augmented reality, using players’ smartphone cameras and GPS to overlay digital creatures onto real-world locations.
“I don’t think that anybody that was playing Pokemon Go had any vision that their data was going to be used in order to kill people. But that’s what it’s being used for today,” Vorhies told RT on Thursday, arguing that user data was exploited “to play a more deadly game, that of warfare.”
The game’s technology traces its roots to Keyhole, a mapping startup which was later acquired by Google, he said.
“There’s been a lot of reports that a lot of these Pokemon Go players were snooping around foreign military bases, because there was some sort of very valuable creature that they had to take a snapshot of,” Vorhies said.
Google likely shared this data with the US military to help it build “ground level information” that augments satellite imagery, he said. Two-dimensional pictures can be used to help reconstruct 3D terrain, adding details that would be obscured to photographs taken from space, he added.
With this, they’re able to get a more complete picture of the battlefield.
The whistleblower argued that artificial intelligence giants like OpenAI are getting rid of their internal transparency mechanisms in order to better aid what he called the US “deep state.” The top US AI companies have signed deals with the US War Department, the Pentagon said last month.
“They’re fighting Russia on the eastern front. They’re fighting Iran in the southern front,” he said. “They don’t want to have any red tape that stops them from being able to get the maximum military advantage.”
Watch the full interview here:
Open Questions
- What specific data from Pokemon Go was shared with the US military?
- What is the extent of the US military's use of this data?
- What are the legal and ethical implications of using game data for warfare?
- Has Niantic or Google confirmed this data sharing?
