" ... you are the product"
It is not exactly news that the corporate tech giants are using us, their "clients." in every possible way that they can.? I just thought that this particular?example is an illustration of just how far it goes.
Niantic?is the company and technology behind Pokemon Go.? I know very?little about the game: at various times various of my grandsons have been enthralled with Pokemon cards, but I don't think any of them ever?got into the online game.? I did, once, encounter a person wandering around with a cell phone, who admitted to searching for ... well, whatever you search for in Pokemon Go.
Apparently, Niantic has been collecting visual and location data from those who have been playing the game.? They are now feeding this into a geospatially-oriented large language?model AI.
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I am quite sure that whatever I type into ChatGPT, Claude, or Meta AI gets fed into ChatGPT, Claude, or Meta AI.? I am quite sure that whatever I type into Bing or Edge gets fed into ChatGPT, and whatever I type into WhatsApp or Instagram gets fed into Meta AI.? I didn't know enough about Niantic to suspect that anything typed into a game would be fed into a geospatial?LLM, but, now that I know that they are interested, it's not surprising.? I suppose that it is not as if my Instagram posts of someone's game playing constitutes any kind of copyrightable material that the company is "stealing" (although, now that the announcement has been made, I suspect that some lawyer, likely American, will try and prove that it is).
But it is one more illustration of how much the tech giants are using us, when we are using them.
(And, yes, the subject?line is a reference to the comment that "if you are not paying for the product or service, you are the product.")
Rob…. Both you and I know that some time ago Bruce Schneier posted on his newsletter “Cryptogram” a synopsis of the number and MO of the very large population of data aggregators, including some common providers of services (Equifax and cohorts included) that had arms length (not sure of the length of those arms) entities that actively were and are using any of our interactions of any sort to drive their core businesses. The number of data aggregators was very high, thousands, and all taking advantage of any and all interactions that unsuspecting users engage in. You may recall this post from earlier on…. https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2018/03/its_not_just_faceboo.html Interesting times dodging the Chinese Curse! Thanks for the prompt! JohnG