A decade after the global craze for Pokémon Go peaked, an AI company has been using billions of real-world images captured by millions of players to develop navigation technologies for delivery robots and possibly military drones. That represents an intriguing but potentially discomfiting legacy for an augmented reality mobile game that has incentivized gamers to capture short smartphone videos of physical neighborhoods and landmarks. The AI company, Niantic Spatial, was spun out of Pokémon Go game developer Niantic in May 2025, after Niantic separately sold its licensed games such as Pokémon Go to the Saudi-backed video game publisher Scopely. But before that deal, Niantic publicly announced plans to use scans from millions of Pokémon Go players along with data captured by users of the company’s Scaniverse app to train and develop a “large geospatial model”—a 3D model of the physical world trained on the geolocated images provided by app users scanning real-world locations. “Ground scans were one component to help train Niantic Spatial’s real-world foundation models —AI systems that learn to recognize and interpret physical spaces,” a Niantic Spatial spokesperson told Ars. “The models are the product of that training, not a copy of or a means of accessing the...

Bill C-22 would force every messaging app in Canada to build a backdoor — and track all your activity for one year. Apple says no. Signal says they'll leave.

Stricter water restrictions are coming earlier than normal due to drought concerns

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A pilot study of a new method for treating sewage sludge from a wastewater treatment plant efficiently created renewable natural gas while reducing the cost of the treatment. The work in the Chemical Engineering Journal could help communities sustainably clean up waste while getting renewable natural gas for their energy needs. When the researchers pretreated sludge collected from a nearby wastewater facility, they produced 200% more renewable natural gas compared to current practices and reduced the final disposal cost by nearly 50%. Renewable natural gas could be used in the same way as fossil-fuel based natural gas for a wide variety of uses, including for electricity generation, home heating, or for transportation without the same climate effect as fossil fuels. “This technology basically converts up to 80% of the sewage sludge into something valuable,” says Birgitte Ahring, corresponding author on the paper and a professor in Washington State University’s Bioproducts, Sciences, and Engineering Laboratory and the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering. “If we can replicate this work on other organic materials, we’ll have a waste treatment technology that is world-class when it comes to efficiency.” Wastewater treatment facilities use large amounts of electricity to clean...

Snowpack levels in parts across the Southern Interior have plunged to historic lows, raising early concerns about drought particularly in the Okanagan.

The drought concerns are rising in the Okanagan. New snowpack data from the BC River Forecast Centre (BCRFC) paints a grim picture of...

No front-page stories in NYT, WSJ, WaPo. No mention on NBC and CBS Sunday Shows. No stand alone segments on Evening News shows. A death count on par with the OKC bombing is relegated to the back page.

YouTube video by Keli Westgate

Want to transform your space and grow food? Need an epic design? Have some ideas and want to get an expert opinion? Or do you just need and plan to get growing? Start with an Edible Garden Consultatio...

Explore the best of East Vancouver’s green infrastructure on this engaging walking tour!

Want to transform your space and grow food? Need an epic design? Have some ideas and want to get an expert opinion? Or do you just need and plan to get growing? Start with an Edible Garden Consultatio...