So far, this is extremely obvious, since the photo has a watermark, the images are identical in both the main photo and the additional one, and Google Lens recognizes the generated photo. However, it’s important to remember that AI is developing very quickly, and in the near future, neural networks will be able to create the same object from different angles, and removing watermarks isn’t a problem even now.
I really like the ability to add photos from the gallery when applying, as this allows you to take many photos from different angles, move to a comfortable place, and choose the photo you like. However, if this feature is not removed, we will soon be faced with a large number of fake nominations.
We get fakes in the UK as well. Auto-generated images; people stealing photos for existing wayspots and reusing the photo and title in a completely different location. It’s not endemic, but it does happen. For now, most auto-generated images can be detected when you compare the main and supporting photos, but this isn’t absolutely reliable and will become increasingly less reliable.
This sort of abuse means that relying on streetview/‘satellite’ view becomes more important. Which in turn makes it harder for genuine submissions in places without streetview.
(I’m thankful I can still create photospheres, until this phone dies, but most people can’t).
There are lots of legitimate reasons to add from the gallery, for example:
You want to crop or edit the photo, e.g. apply an HDR filter, remove people and license plates etc
The photo that best depicts the wayspot is different from the pin. For example, with a bridge the best photo is probably from the side put the pin should be on the bridge itself.
You are remotely resubmitting a wayspot after improving it, or you add the wayspots at a later date than you took the photos.
In almost all the cases I have seen with AI-generated imagery, the supporting photo is either the same (or based on) the main photo or the supporting photo doesn’t show the wayspot at all. In a few cases the AI-generated image in the main and supporting photo doesn’t match. I don’t think it’s necessary to remove a genuinely useful feature to counter a very small minority who may be able to work around it anyway, I also believe that this type of abuse should be dealt with very harshly indeed by Wayfarer staff.
I have amended the title to make the subject of the topic clearer to fellow wayfinders.
If you search the forum you will find issues about AI photos being used being raised. Unfortunately it is a topic that is cropping up regularly, including issues about how to handle these photos.
I spent yesterday in a busy town centre finding things to submit and taking photos. It was busy and raining off and on. It would not have been easy to do the submissions without taking photos and then going to a cafe to check and slightly edit to make them submittable. And also to get the draft text good enough that if I mess up holding it won’t be a disaster.
I really don’t want there to be a situation where the vast majority have a worse experience because of a few acting maliciously.
I would rather see the wayfarer team finding a way to remove submissions that appear to be AI generated from getting in to the community voting pool.
I always recommend submitting from the gallery to check for thumbs, faces, etc. that you didn’t realize were in the photo before you submit. I would not want this option taken away. Plus I can’t really see well when I am outdoors in the the bright sunlight, so I prefer to go somewhere I can see to check my photos. I couldn’t do this if I could only submit on the spot.
I wouldn’t mind if submitting a single AI photo got your Niantic accounts permanently suspended.
There are multiple apps and methods allowing users to spoof a “fake camera” to upload photos from their gallery anyway if the game is forcing them to go through a camera app. This is what people used back when Pokémon GO had neither remote submit nor gallery submissions (and of course fakes were prevalent at that time as well). There are also camera apps with built-in AI tools. So restricting this would achieve strictly nothing.
Imo it is quite clear that fake nominations that don’t exist in real life are abuse and submitters will get sanctioned if caught, there is no need to additionally punish everyone else by removing very practical features that were highly demanded and a huge pain point before they got implemented.
Also, just to put this out there, that graffiti wouldn’t be eligible even if it really existed and wasn’t AI generated. So I don’t know what the submitter thought they were accomplishing. On top of it just being a random tag, the description says “on house" if I’m reading it right, so the location is ineligible as well.
I take images on my phone and often submit later. Nearly always in fact, so that I can spend more time walking and less time faffing with my phone. It’s fairly easy to scroll through and find the images. Uploading them to a computer first, so that I can nominate through the web, adds an extra step, making it easier to use ineligible images (as described above by @holdthebeer) than real images.
I expect that Niantic are aware of the pitfalls of web nominations (including how this works with the 10km pogo nomination radius) and hope they have a really good solution to this issue.
Whilst I am well aware that people have been submitting fake, photoshopped and/or stolen imagery using the image from gallery option, that is not a reason to get rid of it.
There’s a longstanding bug/issue that mostly affects Android devices, and this issue makes the game crash if you try to take the photo from within Pokémon Go itself. The option to use images from the gallery is the only workaround we currently have for this, so removing that option would literally prevent people using wayfarer legitimately.
I have this issue but it also effects when using the gallery.
When the nomination process switches from PoGo to either Camera or Gallery it moves PoGo in to the background. The phone then decides it needs more RAM and closes the background apps including PoGo. After you take / upload the images it should then switch back to PoGo but it has to re-open it and you are back at the beginning again.
The workaround is make sure you do "Settings / Advanced / Download all Assets! before going out. A full phone restart before nominating will help. Without this it might take about 5 attempts for the process to go through, doing this I might still get it fail occasionally.
Just makes it easier if you are within 10km to take the images then nominate when in the comfort of your own home.
If web submissions becomes a thing I feel like I might be one of a very small group of people with an actual usecase for web submissions (unless they have >10km range) because I usualy make some adjustments to my main images in Lightroom on my laptop. My edits mostly involve changing the image from HDR to SDR, slight colour / lighting adjustments, correcting over / under exposure, and cropping the image to 1x1.
This would remove 1 step of my process but I don’t think it’s worth the risk of fakes as I would only save 30-60 seconds per batch to move the edited images from my laptop to my phone.
I’m sure this group will get larger when the web submission happens. Hopefully, the pool of people submitting for aesthetic improvements get more competitive.
Sadly that also comes with the ones who would misuse web submission. Not a reason to stop this feature too IMO.
The crux of the issue is preventing abuse of features, stricter bans are the go-to solution. So what if the whole area gets nerfed instead; disable all wayspots of the affected areas for a limited time depending on the level of infractions.
bigger disincentive for faking the gameboard
community incentive to prevent abuse
For the web submission flow, this can also apply. Geoblock: “web submissions are disabled at this location due to an ongoing investigation/punishment for confirmed issues.”
I think what would be more useful — and what people have actually asked for — is more ways to edit nominations after submitting. Since usually people have photos on the phone anyway, easier to submit from phone, then edit on web, so:
an option to automatically put new nominations on hold;
the ability to edit uploaded images (crop or filter);
updating the location on a larger screen;
a resubmit button (not a fan of this one, but it’s been suggested).
What people (especially new submitters) don’t need is an easier way to get banned without any kind of submitter test or education.
Give new submitters a website where they click “add pokestop” button on a map, upload a few pictures, magic happens, ban
In the context of this thread, I am specifically talking about AI/faked nominations. It takes an active effort to generate AI content and transpose it to real canvas/wall/environment.
3PP, misunderstanding eligibility wrt real objects does cause frustration and should be solved with education that Wayfarer also needs improvement on.
This tbh. I don’t want to have to access the website just for the opportunity to post-edit a sub while enjoying the real world.
I don’t see how ruining the game for everyone is a good way to tackle rampant abuse and cheating. People who submit fake stuff absolutely should be warned and banned if they carry on. But everyone else who does their best should not suffer for just living nearby to a dishonest person!
For context, almost everyone I meet who plays this game has 2 or more accounts, account shares, or fakes their distance. So clearly they don’t care for rules. If any of those people engage with wayfarer, I’m sure they’d take the same approach and ignore the rules there as well. So you’re basically suggesting my area (lets be realistic - all the areas) should never have any stops
I am just starting to make waypoints and I’ve found the AI is necessary to remove things that would get it rejected instantly ! I’ve put in 4 perfect pokestops and they were all rejected…but they were 100%. There was absolutely nothing wrong with them and there locations would have only improved this area, I find it doesn’t matter what you do you’re going to get rejected anyways for some stupid reason.
bigger disincentive for faking the gameboard
