OOF-AII-917492

Is Pokémon Go racist? How the app may be redlining communities of color

Through a crowdsourcing social media campaign in 2016, several journalists and researchers demonstrated that augmented reality locations in the popular smartphone game Pokemon Go were more likely to be in white neighborhoods.

Event date
2016-03-01
Country
United States of America
Severity
Moderate
Evidence state
Single-source

Assessment status

Generated from available public incident evidence using OOF® governance methodology. It is not an official investigation, legal determination, regulatory finding, certification, or OOF® Approved Assessment.

View source record from AI Incident Database (Responsible AI Collaborative)

Assessment confidence dimensions

Source corroboration
Single-source

Measures source-group corroboration only; it does not establish factual truth.

Extraction completeness
High

Measures populated source fields after deterministic normalization; it does not measure correctness.

Methodological assignment confidence
Moderate

Measures automated assignment support; substantive correctness requires authorized human review.

Known facts from the incident record

  • The incident record identifies the event date as 2016-03-01.
  • The incident record identifies the location as United States of America.

Reported claims

  • Through a crowdsourcing social media campaign in 2016, several journalists and researchers demonstrated that augmented reality locations in the popular smartphone game Pokemon Go were more likely to be in white neighborhoods.

Material unknowns

  • Independent corroboration is not established in the available incident record.
  • The specific AI system is not established by the available record.

Primary governance problem

The incident appears to expose a governance problem involving communication, information, demonstrated. Available reporting supports preliminary methodological interpretation, not a finding of fault or non-compliance.

Architecture intelligence

PGA™ — Prediction Governance Architecture

Primary architecture

The reported communication, information, demonstrated concern falls within the governed questions represented by PGA™ — Prediction Governance Architecture.

Governance focus: How should communication, information, demonstrated be governed in the conditions described by the available incident evidence?

Deeper methodology is withheld because the available evidence does not justify a Parent Standard or Core Module.

Preliminary governance questions

  • How should communication, information, demonstrated be governed in the conditions described by the available incident evidence?
  • What operational authority and controls applied to Niantic Labs at the relevant time?
  • What evidence would establish how the relevant AI system produced or enabled the reported outcome?
  • What additional independent evidence is required to resolve the material evidence gaps?

Evidence gaps and limitations

  • Only one independent source group is represented; corroboration is not established.
  • AI technology is not specified in the source record.

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