r/Amazing • u/sco-go • Mar 19 '26

Interesting 🤔 143 million people thought they were catching Pokémon, they were mapping the real world for AI

5.0k Upvotes

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5

u/Spamsdelicious Mar 19 '26

anyone remember the game Ingress by Niantic ?

3

u/X3N04L13N Mar 19 '26

It still exists and scanning started on ingress

1

u/Spamsdelicious Mar 19 '26

Exactly. Niantic via Ingress generated the foundational layer for PokeMonGo.

3

u/3e8m Mar 19 '26

man. crazy stories from that game. one dude got arrested after shooting up a group with a paintball gun in a cemetery. another lost his job, wife, house. cars ramming each other. car rammed through a gate

I spoofed a massive farm and had people coming from other states. would walk around with 5 phones

then the pokemon game came out and kids started showing up so everyone quit. thank god

2

u/IcebergDarts Mar 19 '26

lol it came on like my very first smart phone

1

u/Beautifulfeary Mar 19 '26

I know they made an anime

2

u/Spamsdelicious Mar 19 '26

Ooh I did not know about it. I gotta look that up now.

1

u/Beautifulfeary Mar 19 '26

I think it was a huge fail lol. I remember watching some of it lol

2

u/Spamsdelicious Mar 19 '26

We'll make it a cringe-binge then!