Google Earth AI Feature Removed One Day After Launch as Researchers Expose Misinformation Risks

Google Earth releases, swiftly retracts AI feature to make fake satellite images

Google briefly allowed anyone to create AI-modified versions of satellite imagery available in Google Earth -- before quickly reversing its decision as people shared examples of AI-generated pictures that illustrated the potential for misinformation and disinformation. There is no shortage of generative AI tools that already allow people to create AI-modified images of real buildings and cities based on user prompts. But Google's aborted attempt to incorporate its Nano Banana 2 AI image generator as a Google Earth feature made it even easier for anyone to create modified versions of authentic imagery depicting real locations -- something that Google boasted about when initially promoting the new feature. "For the first time, you can generate custom images using Google Earth's satellite, aerial, and 3D imagery alongside Nano Banana, which creates concepts grounded in the real world," wrote Bryan Horowitz, product manager for Google Earth, in a company blog post on July 30. That possibility deeply alarmed researchers, who often use Google Earth to help verify images and videos of locations at a time when AI-generated misinformation and disinformation have become rampant online. They showed how the new feature could simplify the process of creating false scenarios overlaid on Google Earth's photorealistic imagery. "Google Earth, a tool often used as a source of satellite imagery to verify photos and videos, has added a feature that allows you to alter satellite imagery with AI, for reasons," wrote Eliot Higgins, founder of the independent investigative organization Bellingcat, in a Bluesky post responding to the AI feature's debut. "No way this could be abused," Higgins added sarcastically in a follow-up post that featured an AI-modified image made in Google Earth showing a giant golden statue of President Donald Trump looming over the White House. Within a day, Google announced on the social media platform X that it was rolling back the feature. Shortly afterward, Ars checked and found that the feature was inaccessible to Google Earth users. Before removing the AI feature, Google had touted its potential to allow Google Earth users to depict completed real estate projects or enable teachers and students to transform the modern-day ruins of Pompeii into a "hyper-realistic view" of what the town looked like in 78 CE under the Roman Empire. But independent researchers immediately gravitated toward the potential for misuse. "Tonight I typed just one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees near the Mexican border," wrote Henk van Ess, an independent investigator, in an extensive blog post detailing his concerns on July 30. "Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. Then I put a fatal crash on a street in Amsterdam. Google's own satellite imagery underneath all three. What on earth is Google doing?" Checking for misinformation Ess pointed to a previous example of AI-generated misinformation gone viral that used a Google Earth satellite photo of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain. A forger had prompted Google's Gemini AI assistant to transform a screenshot of that Google Earth image into a false image depicting the aftermath of an Iranian drone strike on the US military base. The same process that might have taken about six steps could be done "in seconds" with the AI tool built into Google Earth, Ess said. Before eventually removing the Google Earth feature, Google initially responded to Ess by highlighting its SynthID system that automatically embeds digital watermarks in images generated by Google's AI tools. "We take misinformation seriously -- every image created with Nano Banana in Google Earth includes the SynthID digital watermark, so if someone is unsure about an image, they can ask the Gemini app or use Lens in Search to see if the image was AI-generated," according to Google's post on X on July 30. "In addition, we prevent image creation on harmful topics and are continually updating our protections." Previous Ars testing of Google's SynthID system has shown that Google's digital watermark can persist despite substantial image edits and data loss. However, Ars also encountered the issue of SynthID limiting image checks to about 10 per day. When Ars prompted Google's Gemini app to run a SynthID check on several AI-modified images generated within Google Earth -- before Google removed the Google Earth feature -- Gemini responded that it had "detected digital watermarking indicating that part or all of this image was generated or edited using Google AI tools." But Ess questioned why Google's policy on preventing the creation of AI-generated images on harmful topics had not stopped him from depicting scenes such as a hospital with a bomb crater in Gaza. He also expressed skepticism about primarily relying on Google's SynthID watermarking system and Google's AI tools for verifying whether an image is AI-generated. "Fakes do not travel as clean files with their credentials intact," Ess wrote. "They travel as screen recordings, re-encodes, screenshots of screenshots, filmed off somebody's phone in a hurry." Indeed, Google's SynthID was unable to provide any image verification when Ars used a smartphone camera to take a photo of an AI-altered image made using the Google Earth feature. Undermining trust By introducing an AI image generator as a Google Earth feature, Google risked undermining public trust in Google Earth as a reliable reference for providing authentic imagery of the real world, Ess said. It could have also handed an additional excuse to government officials or anyone who wants to deny genuine satellite photos by claiming they were modified or generated entirely by AI tools. Giving anyone access to an easy tool to create AI-modified satellite imagery could have also made it even harder for journalists and researchers checking misinformation and disinformation. Ess recommended using multiple sources to verify satellite imagery and relying on constantly updated satellite imagery sources such as Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2. Google may have alleviated immediate concerns by deciding to quickly remove the AI tool within Google Earth -- but its statement suggested that the company could eventually bring the feature back in the future. "We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies," according to the Google statement. "So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails."

Google nixes its Earth AI feature one day after launch, amid criticism it would spread misinformation

Google rolled out a new feature on Thursday that allowed users to deploy Nano Banana 2, its AI image generator, to create fabricated images inside its satellite imagery mapping app Google Earth. The whole point of this feature, Google said, was to get creative with geography. But critics quickly pointed out that the tool could be used to create and spread misinformation. The tool, which was prompt-based and allowed pretty much any image to be superimposed over real maps, seemed like a recipe for a deluge of geospatial slop. "There's no way that this new AI image generation feature on Google Earth, one of the most reliable sources of visual evidence for journalists and researchers, could possibly be abused to spread misinformation online," a BBC journalist posted sarcastically Thursday. Now, only a day after the feature's release, Google has scrapped it. "We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies," the company said in a statement. "We're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails," Google added. The criticism of Google's tool is understandable, although it's worth pointing out that, in the age of AI, most imagery that exists on the web can be easily manipulated. You don't have to be a Photoshop whiz anymore to create semi-credible disinformation, you just need access to an AI image generator, which Google sells, as do many other AI firms.

Google Quickly Rolls Back a Feature That Could Make Deepfake Satellite Images - CNET

Dashia is the consumer insights editor for CNET.... Read full bio Google announced a new way to use AI this week. Then pulled it a day later. As of Thursday, you could use the company's Nano Banana 2 AI model to generate images on Google Earth's satellite, aerial and 3D images. After journalists and researchers shared concerns that it could create realistic satellite images that could be used in misinformation campaigns, the company said it was heading back to the drawing board to improve guardrails. Google initially listed a few ways you can use the new Nano Banana feature in your Google Earth maps, like creating custom infographics to learn about a new place you haven't visited yet, or reimagine how it looked years ago. You could even imagine the future, like new infrastructure or your dream home. I tried it out for myself before the feature disappeared. I typed Central Park in the Google Earth search bar, zoomed into the place and tapped the Create Image button. After a brief prompt, I saw my three-story dream home in the middle of Central Park -- which is far from realistic. However, you could refine the image and even save it to a project. This feature was only available for desktop use. And it took a few minutes for the image of a house in Central Park to generate. Google initially said the new feature "creates concepts grounded in the real world" in Thursday's blog post. Researchers quickly highlighted the potentially hazardous possibilities the tool created. In a viral post on his newsletter, Digital Digging, investigator Henk van Ess showed how easily the tool could create fake but believable images -- a nuclear plant in Iran, for example. "Google spent twenty years building the reference the world checks against," van Ess wrote. "Today it added a button that makes things up." After the backlash, Google on Friday said in a statement on X that it would remove the feature after seeing screenshots of images that violated its policies. "So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails," the company said. "It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI generated." There are plenty of AI image-generation tools, such as Canva and Midjourney. Some focus on realism and let you edit existing images, like Nano Banana. You can create your own imaginary world, like a Barbie Dreamhouse, in place of your own home on your map. But there are plenty of dangers, too. That false sense of reality can lead to misinformation, deception and skewed opinions and narratives. I found some relief in knowing you couldn't alter Google Earth for everyone, because you could only alter your own map. But that won't stop users from sharing screenshots or saved map projects with other users that depict an alternate reality. And when trusted tech companies, like Google, create AI features like this, it makes it even harder to sort out what is true and false.

Google Earth's AI deepfake tool only lasted one day

Google has shut down Google Earth feature it launched Thursday that allowed users to edit satellite images with text prompts using AI. The tool essentially let users create AI deepfakes of the real world using text prompts; Digital Digging's Henk van Ess, for example, intentionally generated images adding things like refugees near the Mexican border and a bomb crater by a hospital in Gaza. On Thursday, Google's initial response to van Ess noted that images generated with Nano Banana 2 in Google Earth included a digital watermark and that the company prevented "image creation on harmful topics." One day later, Google's new statement says that "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world. We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails. It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI generated." van Ess pointed out that he was able to fool Hive's AI detection tool with a video generated in Google Earth, showing how the generated media could spread despite the watermarks, and said in his testing, "Nothing was refused, nothing was softened, and nothing suggested I try a different prompt."

Google Earth's AI makeover survives for just one planetary rotation

Google performed a remarkably brisk reverse ferret last week, launching AI image generation in Google Earth and yanking it the next day after certain sections of the internet did the inevitable. This is how it began: "Today we're bringing AI image generation with Nano Banana to Google Earth, letting you virtually reimagine anywhere in the real world." This is how it's going, less than 48 hours later: "Thanks for your submissions, we appreciate it - unfortunately we have seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we've rolled back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails." Never mind "this is why we can't have nice things." What exactly did Google expect when it added AI image generation to Google Earth? The process was simple - zoom into anywhere on Google Earth, hit "Create Image," enter a prompt to twist satellite imagery to reflect your hopes and dreams, then enjoy your creation. Or, as users quickly demonstrated, misinformation. While Google included cutesy examples of animal resorts, construction renderings, and restorations of ancient ruins, the darker side of the internet soon showed itself. AI tools have long been able to alter screenshots, but placing the generator inside a service trusted as a record of the physical world does no favors for that trust, despite Google's insistence that the output was watermarked as AI-generated. In an update, Google stated: "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world," which makes the functionality even more bizarre. As AI and misinformation expert Henk van Ess noted in his Digital Digging blog, "What on earth is Google doing?" The AI misinformation genie has long left its bottle when it comes to imagery. However, putting a photorealistic image generator inside Google Earth and expecting only harmless fun shows Microsoft Tay levels of naivete. In retrospect, Tay, the AI chatbot that netizens persuaded to spew some impressively hateful tweets, offered a warning back in 2016 of what was coming down the line. Google has not permanently pulled the plug. As van Ess noted: "The feature is paused, not cancelled." ®

Google Earth AI tool raises fears over spread of fake satellite images

Security researchers have attacked Google's new AI-powered image editing tool, arguing it will accelerate the spread of disinformation by making it easier to fabricate convincing satellite imagery. The company on Thursday announced that it had integrated its Nano Banana image-generation model into Google Earth, allowing users to "type whatever you want to see" and "virtually reimagine anywhere in the world". The system lets users manipulate satellite imagery with AI-generated objects and scenes. Users on X quickly demonstrated the feature by sharing images they said showed a fabricated bomb crater in Gaza, nuclear power plants in Iran and a car crash on a street in Amsterdam. Open-source intelligence (Osint) experts who use Google Earth to verify information from hard-to-access areas, including war zones, warned that the tool could undermine one of the most widely used reference points for authenticating imagery. "Google Earth has served for decades as the dated reference layer journalists and investigators check suspicious imagery against; building a generative tool into that same benchmark corrupts the very measure used to debunk fakes," said Sam Stockwell, senior research associate at the Alan Turing Institute. "The fake is now being made inside the thing people use to check whether pictures are real," said Henk van Ess, an Osint expert and author of the Digital Digging newsletter, who shared the altered Google Earth images on X. Google's announcement comes as concerns grow over the spread of AI-generated images on social media, making it far easier for individuals and governments to fabricate evidence and distribute it to millions of people worldwide. In March, as war raged across the Middle East, AI-altered satellite images circulated on X purporting to show damage to an American radar system in Qatar following an Iranian drone strike. Another apparently AI-generated post claimed to show the Islamic republic's late supreme leader being pulled out of rubble, while a further AI-enhanced post exaggerated the scale of damage to a US military base in Iraq. Brady Africk, a research analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said Google's tool went further than previous image generators because it is integrated into Google Earth. "These fakes are anchored to real satellite images, removing some of the tell-tale signs of AI generation like mismatched terrain and scale," he said. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment but has previously said every image created with the Nano Banana tool in Google Earth includes a watermark that can be identified by its Gemini AI model. However Africk cautioned this would not be sufficient to prevent people from being deceived. "Few people check whether an image is AI-generated as they scroll past or share it."

Here's the problem with putting an AI image generator in Google Earth

Now a text prompt is all it takes to generate reality-warping images using Google Earth's satellite, aerial, and 3D imagery, like these images generated by Digital Digging's Henk van Ess that show "refugees near the Mexican border" and a bomb crater near a hospital in Gaza. Google responded to Digital Digging's AI-altered images, saying, "We take misinformation seriously - every image created with Nano Banana in Google Earth includes the SynthID digital watermark, so if someone is unsure about an image, they can ask the Gemini app or use Lens in Search to see if the image was AI-generated." In addition to using Google's "@verifyai" tag in Gemini to check suspicious images, van Ess suggests comparing them to other satellite platforms, like Sentinel-2 or Landsat, and even verifying orbital data like when it says it was taken and by which satellite. The feature launched globally on the web version of Google Earth earlier this week, and Google's blog post pitches it as a tool for visualizing historical sites and real estate projects. Some images are easy to spot as fakes, like showing the Sphinx crossed with the Statue of Liberty, but I can see how the Nano Banana 2 feature could create images that are believable enough to spread misinformation. And while Google's watermark may be difficult to remove, it's not impossible to miss or bypass - Digital Digging was able to fool Hive's AI detector with an AI-altered video from Google Earth.

Google rolls back the needless AI generation tools it added to Google Earth - Engadget

The decision comes one day after people used the tool to generate misleading satellite imagery. Google is rolling back Nano Banana image generation inside of Google Earth less a day after announcing the integration on July 30. "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world. We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies," the company wrote in a statement it shared on X. The announcement comes after 404 Media showed Google Earth's image generation could easily be used to create misleading satellite imagery. In one example, author Joseph Cox used the tool to make an image of a blast crater in Los Angeles. In another, he added protestors just outside of Google's Mountain View, California campus. At the time, the company downplayed the misinformation concerns, arguing people could use tools like Gemini to verify the authenticity of any images generated by Nano Banana. "We take misinformation seriously -- every image created with Nano Banana in Google Earth includes the SynthID digital watermark, so if someone is unsure about an image, they can ask the Gemini app or use Lens in Search to see if the image was AI-generated. In addition, we prevent image creation on harmful topics and are continually updating our protections," the company said in a statement. is it good that you can just put anything you want into Google Earth with AI now: www.404media.co/google-earth... -- Jason Koebler (@jasonkoebler.bsky.social) 2026-07-31T16:04:41.345Z However, as Cox later pointed out on Blue Sky, "Google's statement that it includes a watermark that can identify [the Nano Banana images] as AI-generated is completely braindead as to how misinformation works." Think about it. How often have you stopped to verify an image you've seen online? If we're being generous, you could argue people have become more critical of the images they see online, but it was also only a few years ago the entire internet was sharing generated AI images of baby peacocks thinking they were real. On Friday, Google repeated its defense that the images Google Earth generated were watermarked, but added it would also implement stronger guardrails before enabling image generation inside of Google Earth again.

For a Day, Google Made It Easy to Spoof Satellite Imagery

A new Google Earth tool allowed the creation of A.I. deepfake maps. The tech giant quickly pulled it back after a backlash and concerns about disinformation risks. For 20 years, Google Earth has been one of the most powerful tools used by journalists, governments and investigators to verify events and debunk falsehoods. For about 24 hours beginning on Thursday, the tool became even more potent, when a six-word instruction -- "type whatever you want to see" -- allowed billions of Google Earth users worldwide to use a new artificial intelligence feature to create deepfake aerial images. That wasn't exactly the company's intention, of course. Google wanted its satellite images to help unleash users' imaginations, like visualizing what an empty lot could look like, or seeing what their neighborhood looked like 100 years ago, or what it could look like 100 years from now. Instead, the feature led to open-source intelligence researchers, journalists and others showing how easily the tool could be used to generate very realistic nuclear power plants, refugee camps along any border, burned forests, flooded cities and even a fatal car crash. "Whatever you want to see" became too much for Google to see, and on Friday, one day after heralding the new feature, the company announced that it was disabling it. "We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies," Google said in a statement. The company said it would work on installing safeguards, a signal that the feature would return. Google had encouraged users to type prompts to bring history to life, like a rendering of ancient Pompeii, or to give locations a "makeover," like turning the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., into a science-fiction utopia. Users could zoom into any coordinates on the planet, click "create image," and type what they wanted to see, altering the satellite view of that exact physical spot. The A.I. tool would then generate a photorealistic image using Google's genuine satellite, aerial and 3-D imagery as its foundation. The tool was immediately tested, and users quickly learned that there were no safeguards to prevent content that could be harmful. Among the first to try was Henk van Ess, an open-source researcher, who created a nuclear plant in Iran, a bombed hospital in Gaza and a fatal car crash in Amsterdam. National Public Radio followed by generating images of a flooded U.S. Capitol and fires at a strategic oil terminal in Iran. Many others tried their hand at it. The feature transformed what was a long and laborious process to create a doctored satellite image into a single-sentence prompt. The world got a peek at what disinformation with no barriers looks like, and most who caught a glimpse did not like what they saw. As Mr. van Ess and others pointed out, the fake images carry instant credibility because Google Earth is a universally trusted base line of truth. The fake images match the lighting, angles and colors of real images, so the fakes were perfectly camouflaged. "A forgery built that way doesn't have to be convincing on its own," Mr. van Ess wrote. Though Google said each A.I.-generated image included a digital watermark to identify it as such, a simple screenshot allowed some images to slip past A.I.-detection tools. The screenshots violate Google's policies, the tech giant said. "It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as A.I. generated," the company said in its statement. "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world." That was certainly the case in 2014 when Russia's Defense Ministry held a news conference where it presented satellite images of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Nearly 300 people were killed, and Russia denied its involvement, using doctored images to "prove" its case. But researchers, including the online investigative site Bellingcat, exposed the photos as fakes. They showed that it was a Russian missile launcher belonging to an active Russian military unit that had fired a missile at the Malaysian jumbo jet. The researchers used Google Earth images because they are considered unimpeachable evidence. The Bellingcat article was headlined: "Who to Trust, Google or the Russian MoD?"

Google Just Torched the Credibility of Its Satellite Images

Google Earth was a boon for researchers -- and then came the deepfakes. Earlier today, I used Google Earth to conjure images of terrible things: office buildings on fire, mass destruction in San Francisco, a smoldering crater in place of the Eiffel Tower. I was able to because Google had just decided to integrate its AI image generator, Nano Banana, into the service, which has historically been used by people seeking satellite or aerial imagery of real-world locations. Just open the site, "pick a spot on the map, and start bringing your ideas to life," Google wrote in a press release announcing the update some 24 hours ago. So I did. I was easily able to generate those violent images simply by searching for a location on Google Earth, clicking the "Create image" icon, and typing in a few words. The feature also readily doctored stills of less spectacular, and likely less immediately falsifiable, events: a homeless encampment on the White House lawn, protesters outside the Mar-a-Lago resort, immigrants streaming over the U.S.-Mexico border. Google initially responded by directing people to check any suspicious images themselves. As fake images generated with this new Google Earth feature began circulating the web, the company stated that it takes "misinformation seriously" and that "every image created with Nano Banana in Google Earth includes the SynthID digital watermark, so if someone is unsure about an image, they can ask the Gemini app or use Lens in Search to see if the image was AI-generated." At first, Google did not remove or restrict access to the tool. But today, shortly after I reached out with a request for comment, the company reversed course and announced that it is "rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails." Before it allowed people to create fake imagery, Google Earth was a unique resource for researchers, journalists, and intelligence officials, particularly those studying armed conflict and natural disasters. Satellite and aerial imagery can be used to monitor crop failure or deforestation, the creation of mass graves, and the results of bombing campaigns. Especially in conflict zones and other areas that are hard for people to reach, satellite imagery is a go-to method for establishing some sort of ground truth. After Google Earth rolled out the AI feature, though, one investigative reporter wrote on LinkedIn that the tool could be used to easily and rapidly create images of drone strikes that look "very close to what we've seen in Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East, and other war-torn conflict zones." And instead of requiring malicious actors to find a screenshot and then get around some AI model's safeguards, Google rolled everything needed for a misinformation farm into one smooth user interface. It took me all of four seconds to generate a rendering of a Trump Hotel on the Gaza Strip. Read: The AI industry keeps breaking the internet The problem should have been obvious to Google, whose other products already forbid such edits. I was able to create an aerial image on Google Earth of a plane flying into the new World Trade Center building, but when I tried to do this directly through Nano Banana, the tool refused to edit an image of the building to depict a terrorist attack. Indeed, 9/11 and other high-profile events are well-known, even classic, subjects for AI-image trolling. This is not Google's first time launching an AI feature, and in particular an AI image-editing feature, without serious safeguards. Last year, the company released an AI shopping tool that allows you to visualize what clothes might look like on your body by uploading personal photos. As my colleague Lila Shroff and I reported at the time, "With little friction, anyone can use the feature to create what are essentially erotic images of celebrities and strangers. Alarmingly, we also discovered that it can do this for minors." In 2024, Google Gemini was ridiculed for generating images of a racially diverse group of Nazis but not of any white Wehrmacht soldiers. And Google's most prominent AI feature, the chatbot-powered answers in its flagship search engine, were an utter disaster upon their rollout -- the AI overviews told people to eat rocks and gave other potentially dangerous health advice. Only after tremendous public pressure did the company make a substantial change, and two years later, the AI responses in Google Search continue to be inconsistent and unreliable. Google is, of course, not alone in releasing AI features that have had embarrassing, dangerous, and avoidable consequences. See, for instance, Elon Musk's Grok generating more than 1 million sexualized images, including of children, over just a few days, or any number of embarrassing errors made by ChatGPT releases throughout the years. Again and again, the AI industry undercuts its rhetoric about safety by launching products with little or no due diligence. If, as every major AI executive has pronounced, this technology really could upend human civilization, their companies should perhaps start taking that responsibility seriously.

New Google Earth AI tool could fuel misinformation, experts say

Google has launched a new AI tool which allows people to create fake images by superimposing almost anything on top of its own widely-used satellite imagery. The tech giant has integrated its AI image generator Nano Banana 2 into Google Earth, enabling text prompts to generate false scenarios on top of a base layer of real satellite, aerial or 3D imagery - which can then be downloaded and shared on other platforms. Experts have criticised the tool as a means to spread misinformation with the appearance of Google's legitimacy - and highlighted the potential for bad actors to abuse it. A collapsed Eiffel Tower, a sinkhole swallowing the Great Pyramid of Giza and Russian tanks in Ukraine's capital were among the images BBC Verify was able to create when testing the feature, which was rolled out on on Thursday. Google has not yet responded to questions based on BBC Verify's tests, but in a social media post yesterday the company said they "take misinformation seriously" and that "we prevent image creation on harmful topics and are continually updating our protections". AI and misinformation expert Henk van Ess has highlighted the risks this feature poses, creating fake images of a non-existent nuclear power plant in Iran, a refugee camp on the US-Mexico border and a fake hospital in Gaza with a bomb crater next to it. He said Google was allowing "invented" imagery to be "welded to genuine coordinates, drawn on genuine imagery". "The forgery does not have to look convincing on its own. It inherits the credibility of the map it was born on," van Ess added. Google said AI content created by its tools contain invisible watermarks to indicate that they are fake or manipulated, adding that anyone who is "unsure about an image" can check it using the Gemini chatbot app or use the Lens feature in its search. Generally, BBC Verify's tests have found this is effective with images generated by the new feature. But we have have found it is possible to circumnavigate these checks and trick Gemini into saying these fake Google Earth images are real. Tests using external AI detection tools also in some cases failed to identify the Google Earth AI-content. AI-detection researcher Henry Ajdar told BBC Verify the creation of fake imagery in conflict zones could prove particularly "destabilising" when events are fast-moving and information is scarce. "Journalists might be able to check that image... and report on it. But again, not everyone is going to do that," he added. Google also insists guidelines built into its AI model will prevent the creation of imagery depicting "harmful topics", however BBC Verify has found that small changes to prompts can be used to bypass these guidelines. For example, a request to create a "raised platform to hang traitors" next to the UK parliament was rejected. But when a less specific prompt was used, it was accepted and the image was created. We also asked the tool to mow the word "Trump" into the White House lawn, but it said it could not "create that image" based on its guidelines. It did, however, allow a community garden to be generated in the same spot. With the constant flood of AI imagery, Ajder said, spaces assumed to be "unblemished by AI are valuable, particularly for journalists and people trying to do work on the frontlines of rapidly evolving crisis scenarios". "It's concerning because it's another place where sources of trusted information are being eroded by the constant doubt that AI might be involved," he added. For many, Google Earth is the entry point to openly-accessible satellite imagery and can be used to obtain insights into hard to reach areas. "This is potentially particularly damaging to public trust because satellite imagery has historically been seen as an especially trustworthy source of data," Bill Greer, a geospatial analyst and co-founder of the non-profit satellite service Common Space, told BBC Verify. Falsified satellite imagery has already been used to spread misinformation, he added. "Governments are also restricting access to data more and more, so we're likely to see more false images, and fewer real images which will further erode trust." What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

Google Earth's AI makeover survives one trip around the Sun

Google performed a remarkably brisk reverse ferret last week, launching AI image generation in Google Earth and yanking it the next day after certain sections of the internet did the inevitable. This is how it began: "Today we're bringing AI image generation with Nano Banana to Google Earth, letting you virtually reimagine anywhere in the real world." This is how it's going, less than 48 hours later: "Thanks for your submissions, we appreciate it - unfortunately we have seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we've rolled back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails." Never mind "this is why we can't have nice things." What exactly did Google expect when it added AI image generation to Google Earth? The process was simple - zoom into anywhere on Google Earth, hit "Create Image," enter a prompt to twist satellite imagery to reflect your hopes and dreams, then enjoy your creation. Or, as users quickly demonstrated, misinformation. While Google included cutesy examples of animal resorts, construction renderings, and restorations of ancient ruins, the darker side of the internet soon showed itself. AI tools have long been able to alter screenshots, but placing the generator inside a service trusted as a record of the physical world does no favors for that trust, despite Google's insistence that the output was watermarked as AI-generated. In an update, Google stated: "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world," which makes the functionality even more bizarre. As AI and misinformation expert Henk van Ess noted in his Digital Digging blog, "What on earth is Google doing?" The AI misinformation genie has long left its bottle when it comes to imagery. However, putting a photorealistic image generator inside Google Earth and expecting only harmless fun shows Microsoft Tay levels of naivete. In retrospect, Tay, the AI chatbot that netizens persuaded to spew some impressively hateful tweets, offered a warning back in 2016 of what was coming down the line. Google has not permanently pulled the plug. As van Ess noted: "The feature is paused, not cancelled." ®

Google Briefly Turned Google Earth Into an AI Slop Factory

On Thursday, Google released a new AI feature that allowed anyone to create fake images in Google Earth. Naturally, people used the AI to put a fake nuclear plant in Iran and show a plane crashing into One World Trade Center in New York. After massive online backlash, the tech giant killed the feature on Friday. "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world. We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies," the company said in a statement posted online. "So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails," the company continued. "It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI generated." The big question, of course, is why Google released this feature to begin with. People made AI slop to show things on Google Earth that didn't happen, including the kinds of things that would quickly go viral if people thought they were real. Images of people in Mexico amassing on the U.S. border -- which one person made -- are the kind of thing that can be politically useful for supporters of President Donald Trump. And there are already plenty of people who believe the terror attacks on September 11, 2001 were fake. What purpose does it serve humanity to let people make those images in a setting that gives it the Google stamp of approval? Yes, there is a watermark. But it's easy to remove watermarks with other AI tools. Google hasn't addressed what they thought this new feature would accomplish for the average person and it's hard to imagine the non-nefarious purposes. The response to Google's decision to pull the AI feature seemed positive overall, with many people expressing frustration that it was attempted in the first place. Alex Hirsch, the animator who created the TV show Gravity Falls, captured a common sentiment about the AI slop on X, writing, "You guys are living in a complete bubble. Step outside Silicon Valley for two seconds and you'll realize no actual human wants AI sludge crammed into every corner of every product. Touch grass. Talk to actual people." It's true that there's been a lot of public resentment toward the big tech companies for trying to push AI into everything. But there are powerful interests who want to make sure AI is everywhere. For some, it's about keeping stock prices elevated. But for others in the ruling class it's all about wages. Automation has historically hurt blue collar workers the most, with machines replacing manual labor on assembly lines. But with AI chatbots, white collar workers are finally replaceable, at least in ways that make it harder for those workers to ask for more money.

Google pulls its Earth AI image tool one day after launch over fake satellite imagery

Google rolled back its new AI image tool in Google Earth after researchers showed it could fabricate satellite imagery of war zones on real coordinates Google on Friday pulled a new AI image generation feature from Google Earth, one day after launching it, because users were creating fabricated satellite imagery that appeared to violate company policies. The tool, powered by the company's Nano Banana 2 model, let anyone zoom into a real location, type a text prompt, and generate a photorealistic aerial scene layered onto genuine coordinates. Dutch intelligence researcher Henk van Ess was among the first to demonstrate the problem. In a blog post titled "How to plant a nuclear plant in Iran," he showed that single-sentence prompts could insert a nuclear facility into Iranian territory, place refugees on a road near the Mexican border, and add a hospital with a bomb crater in Gaza, each in seconds, all rendered on top of authentic satellite imagery. He was not alone. BBC Verify produced a toppled Eiffel Tower, a sinkhole swallowing the Great Pyramid of Giza, and Russian tanks in Kyiv. AFP generated explosions in Paris and an Islamic State training camp in Syria. The news agency 404 Media added skyscrapers to rural land and inserted a homeless encampment into Los Angeles. In each case, the fabricated imagery was layered directly onto authentic coordinates, indistinguishable at a glance from the real satellite view underneath. The concern is not that AI can generate fake images, which it has been able to do for years, but that Google was welding fabricated scenes directly onto real coordinates inside a platform that journalists, investigators, and intelligence analysts treat as a primary verification tool. Van Ess noted that it takes a government request to remove a single real building from Google Earth, but only a sentence to add a fake one. Google said in a post on its media relations account on X that it had seen geospatial professionals using the feature for useful purposes but was rolling it back to implement stronger guardrails. The company added that none of the AI-generated images appeared in the main Google Earth platform, meaning the fabricated scenes were confined to the generation tool rather than mixed into the base imagery layer. The generated images did carry Google's SynthID digital watermark, an invisible signature designed to survive screenshots and compression. But watermarking only helps after the fact, once someone knows to check. It does nothing to prevent a fabricated satellite image from circulating on social media as if it were real, particularly in fast-moving conflict situations where verification lags behind virality. The episode is the latest in a series of rapid launches and retreats for Google's generative AI products. The company paused Gemini's image generation of people in 2024 after it produced historically inaccurate depictions, and has since rebuilt those safeguards. The Google Earth rollback follows the same pattern: a feature ships broadly, edge cases surface within hours, and the company pulls it back to add the guardrails that were missing at launch.

Google Earth slams the brakes on Gemini image generation for depressingly predictable reasons

Google plans to bring it back after stricter guardrails are in place. Playing around generating images with AI is a whole lot of fun... up until it isn't. At some point, someone's going to make a particularly controversial image, or maybe try to pass off a fake as the real thing, or even just rip off a real artist's work. Yesterday, Google announced it was bringing Gemini's Nano Banana 2 image generation to Google Earth to make it easy to create imaginative landscapes based on real-world locations, and now it's already finding itself forced to backtrack. Admittedly, while both Google Earth and Google Maps tap into geospatial data, Earth has much more of a reputation as a professional tool, and we can appreciate how suddenly introducing a feature to generate fantastical images feels more than a little off-brand. If you had the chance to give Nano Banana in Google Earth a spin during its brief existence, let us know what you thought of your experience down in the comments. Hopefully the rest of us will have a chance to try it for ourselves soon.

See how Google Earth let people make fake scenes of bombings, riots and destruction

People view the Valencia aquarium on Google Earth in 2017. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images) Google rolled out Thursday a new feature that let anyone generate artificial intelligence images and superimpose them onto satellite maps of the real world. By Friday afternoon, Google backtracked on the feature, after people had seized on it to create alarming, realistic fake scenes, including what looked like a plane crashing into a Manhattan skyscraper, a nuclear facility in Iran and aerial images of a bombing in Moscow.

Google Earth's New AI Lets Anyone Fabricate Completely Bullshit Satellite Images

"Tonight I typed just one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees near the Mexican border. Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. Then I put a fatal crash on a street in Amsterdam." On Thursday, Google introduced a new AI feature into Google Earth which lets anyone fabricate all sorts of misleading or straight up inaccurate satellite imagery, from making it look like a specific place has suffered a drone strike to manifesting a nuclear plant in Iran. Usually, Google Earth is an exceptionally useful tool for open source intelligence (OSINT) analysts to digitally monitor areas of interest and see how they change over time, say, during a conflict or disaster. Now, Google Earth can easily be used as a tool for disinformation.

Google adds AI to satellite images, raising fears of deepfakes in the sky

An AI-generated image showing multiple fires on and near Kharg Island, an Iranian island in the Persian Gulf that is home to a strategic oil terminal. Generated and annotated by NPR hide caption Google has unveiled a new feature that allows users to create AI-generated satellite images with the click of a button on its Google Earth platform. In its announcement of the new feature on Thursday, the company said it was designed to work with users' imaginations: "Just zoom in to a place in Google Earth on web (sic), tap 'create image,' and type whatever you want to see," Bryan Horowitz, a product manager wrote. But for experts and analysts who rely on Google's imagery to verify breaking news and atrocities in hard-to-reach parts of the world, the potential to create deepfake satellite imagery at the click of a button was horrifying. NPR was able to easily generate images of Iran's Kharg Island on fire, and a flooded U.S. Capitol complex. Both events, which have not happened, would constitute major news if they were real. "I tried refugees at the Mexican border, a nuclear plant in Iran, a crash in Amsterdam, a hospital with a bomb crater in Gaza. Nothing was refused," Henk van Ess, an open-source researcher who first wrote about the potential damage the tool could cause, told NPR via text. Online, journalists and open-source investigators wondered aloud about Google's decision. "Very curious how or if this idea was red teamed internally because the opportunities for abuse and disinfo are literally boundless," Evan Hill, an visual forensics investigator at the Washington Post wrote on X. Eyes in the sky As the online world fills with AI-generated deepfakes and slop, satellite imagery has been a key tool for understanding what's real and what's not. Open-source investigators have used satellite images to verify events on the ground, and as reference for understanding videos and images shared online. Google Earth imagery is not always the most up-to-date, but its sweeping, high-resolution coverage of the planet can provide important reference imagery for both images from the ground and more up-to-date images from other satellites. "Satellite imagery has been kind of a safe bet when it comes to verifying an event because it's hard to fake," says Jake Godin, a senior researcher with the online group Bellingcat, which does visual forensic investigations. Satellite images are usually controlled by companies or institutions, and their source, a camera hundreds of miles above the earth's surface, has historically been hard to imitate. Fakes from space Godin noted fake satellite imagery has already cropped up in limited cases. Early on in the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, for example, fake images circulated of a damaged U.S. base in Bahrain. The images, which popped up in Iranian media, appeared to use Google Earth images and Google AI to generate fake damage at the base. (Real satellite images later showed that the base was, in fact, damaged, just not in the way shown in the fake image.) But putting the tools together to create AI-generated satellite images with a single click has the potential to vastly accelerate the generation of AI fakes, Godin said. "It's just streamlining the process, which I think is going to make it proliferate more." Godin worries that the spread of fake images will add to confusion and misinformation. "Misinformation travels further and faster than any sort of correction," he said. Moreover, governments will now be more likely to claim satellite images are fake, even if they are real, undermining public trust. Google did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment about the decision, but in a posting on X, the company said it "takes misinformation seriously." The company noted that all images are marked with its SynthID watermark, which ensures it will be flagged as AI-generated in other Google tools such as Gemini. "In addition, we prevent image creation on harmful topics and are continually updating our protections," it said. But few in the open source community seemed reassured by Google's statements. For van Ess, the decision particularly stings because Google Earth has long been regarded as one of the best tools to verify information posted on social media. Now, he said, "The fake is made inside the thing people use to check whether pictures are true."

Google yanks satellite image editor after deepfake outcry

What they're saying: Google is "rolling back" the Nano Banana integration while it works "on implementing stronger guardrails." * "It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI generated," the company said in a statement. Yes, but: Others warned of the damage already done. * The integration did "immediate, catastrophic damage to the credibility of satellite imagery," OSINTtechnical, an account on X with nearly 2 million followers, said in a post. * "What could possibly go wrong?" Hans Kristensen, a nuclear-security expert at the Federation of American Scientists, said in a separate post. My thought bubble: I manifested missile sites in Iran and cratered an American air base with just a few words -- and all for free. Others put whales offshore, burned buildings and flooded the Capitol.

Google Earth Pulls AI Image Generator After Users Created Misleading Images

The virtual ink had barely dried on PetaPixel's article last week covering the news that Google Earth had added the Nano Banana AI image generator before the company quickly pulled the feature. The speedy U-turn is because users were generating images that "violated" Google's policies. These included making misleading satellite images like the Eiffel Tower in Paris toppled over, fake nuclear plants in Iran, and streams of refugees at the Mexico-U.S. border. The software is widely seen as a reliable data source for satellite imagery. So when Google Earth images start depicting planes crashing into Manhattan skyscrapers, it is not a good look for the company. "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world," Google says in a statement. "We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies." "We're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails," Google adds. "It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI-generated." Digital misinformation expert Henk van Ess published a series of examples on his X page, illustrating how easily misleading and potentially dangerous Google Earth images can be created. "What on earth is Google doing?," Van Ess asks on his blog, Digital Digging. "Google spent 20 years building the reference the world checks against. Today it added a button that makes things up." In response to Van Ess's work, Google says that "every image created with Nano Banana in Google Earth includes the SynthID digital watermark, so if someone is unsure about an image, they can ask the Gemini app or use Lens in Search to see if the image was AI-generated." The BBC reports that in its tests, the SynthID watermark was effective with AI images generated on Google Earth. But it was possible to circumvent these "checks and trick Gemini into saying these fake Google Earth images are real." An X community note placed on Google's statement reads, "SynthID AI watermarks utilized by Google are only placed on sections of AI-generated media made with Nano Banana, allowing for the circumvention of AI verification." Google says Nano Banana will return to Google Earth once stronger guardrails are in place.

Google pulling Nano Banana from Google Earth after one day shows how bad our AI misinformation problem has got

We're now well past the point where it's very difficult, and in some cases impossible, to tell AI-generated photos and videos from the real thing. That means it's now important to treat everything you see online from untrusted sources with a big dose of skepticism. A newly rolled out Google Earth feature has apparently made AI-generated misinformation even more of a problem -- and it highlights the scary potential of the technology, as well as the need for stronger guardrails to block the efforts of those who will instantly try and find the most subversive and harmful ways to use a new product. The feature is AI image generation in Google Earth, powered by the Nano Banana 2 model, and after a wave of inappropriate images were created and posted online, it's now been pulled while Google works on some more robust protections against misinformation. Google Earth's new feature It all started with the usual level of hype that Google builds around any new AI feature: the Nano Banana 2 image generation model that has already wowed us in the Gemini app would be available inside Google Earth on the web. "Generate custom images to help you visualize history, create real estate plans, and more," Google said. "For the first time, you can generate custom images using Google Earth's satellite, aerial, and 3D imagery alongside Nano Banana, which creates concepts grounded in the real world." Google had examples of how it could be used too: create an infographic about the Statue of Liberty, visualize your dream home by the lake, see what your neighborhood might look like a hundred years from now, or imagine Pompeii just before it got buried by ash and rock from an erupting Mount Vesuvius. All it took was a text prompt, and Google Earth would combine existing satellite and 3D data to create the AI image you were asking for. While the AI model wasn't new, adding it to the accurate and authentic imagery already in Google Earth was. What went wrong Perhaps we should've seen this coming -- and indeed some people did -- but combining AI with the 3D data and satellite imagery of Google Earth didn't work out quite as well as Google hoped. The new upgrade was quickly used to create all manner of deceptive images that were then widely shared online. I'm reluctant to point you to them directly and give these fakes any more attention, but they're not hard to find on social media. Think natural disasters, terrorism attacks, giant sinkholes, alien activity, and refugee populations all in places where they never actually were, thanks to AI. Some of the images are clearly jokes, but many were produced deliberately to spread misinformation and confusion. That they were based on actual images sourced from Google Earth added extra credibility they wouldn't otherwise have had. And that was enough for Google to remove the feature. Google says a flood of images "that appear to violate our policies" mean that "we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails". The company added:."It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI generated." Our AI-filled future You don't have to look for long online to find rather strong anti-AI sentiment building up among users, especially when it comes to image and video content. The general sentiment on Reddit is that there's "zero use" to a feature like this, and that users are fed up with AI being "shoved down our throats". There are various obvious lessons to be learned here: firstly not everything needs to have an AI prompt box or an AI element to it, and if some tools are largely AI-free, that's fine. Microsoft recently rolled back some of the AI it added to Notepad -- an app where a big part of the appeal is its simplicity -- after user complaints. Secondly, before companies release any new AI features, they need to consider the worst-case scenarios in terms of how they're going to be used. The internet as a collective is going to immediately try and stress test them in the most deceptive and unwholesome ways, and there need to be safety measures put in place around that. Lastly, it's never been more important to stick to sources of information that you know you can trust: not random social media accounts, but established publications that have policies around AI and its use. That's one effective way you can tell the difference between what's trustworthy and what isn't. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.

Google rolls back AI Google Earth feature a day after launch

After Google added its AI image generator, Nano Banana, to Google Earth on Thursday, it reversed its decision a day later. Google announced the addition of Nano Banana 2 into its mapping platform, presumably to help users generate infographics about a site, see what it looked like historically, generate real estate ideas, and other use cases. Instead, as 404 Media observed, it made it very easy to inject misinformation into Google Earth, including making it appear like a nuclear strike had hit a location or that protests had taken over Google's offices. On Thursday, Google seemed to try to smooth out the kinks, sharing on Thursday night on X that "every image created with Nano Banana in Google Earth includes the SynthID digital watermark, so if someone is unsure about an image, they can ask the Gemini app or use Lens in Search to see if the image was AI-generated." It also stated that it prevents image creation on "harmful topics." However, come Friday afternoon, Google announced on X that it was removing the feature: We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world. We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails. It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI generated. The backlash to the initial decision was quick. Replies to the rollback post on X include Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch saying, "You guys are living in a complete bubble. Step outside Silicon Valley for two seconds and you'll realize no actual human wants AI sludge crammed into every corner of every product. Touch grass. Talk to actual people." Another top reply read, "There is 0 chance that no one on your development team didn't raise exactly this concern."

Google quietly discontinues its Earth AI feature a day after its rollout after users made no-no images | Fortune

"We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world," a Google spokesperson told Fortune. "It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others... and were watermarked as AI generated." The spokesperson's comments come after it quickly became apparent users began abusing the system to create false images meant for disinformation. Some generated images of a nuclear plant in Iran, or refugees near the Mexico-US border. The feature allowed users to overlay AI-generated scenes onto real satellite, aerial and 3D imagery. Google envisioned legitimate uses such as visualizing planning concepts or historical reconstructions, but users almost immediately began generating fabricated disasters, false military installations and conflict scenes tied to real-world locations. Adverse effects common in AI use Google's Nano Banana technology allows users to generate AI images using simple queries, built-in to its Gemini chatbot. Unlike earlier AI-image generators, Nano Banana was designed to allow users to edit their images. Akin to Photoshop -- the AI would add, remove or alter objects within an image while preserving its realistic features. Google released the Nano Banana software integration with Google Earth with a few safeguards. Images generated using the system were separated from authentic Google Earth imagery and were embedded with watermarks designed to indicate they had been created with AI, a Google spokesperson told Fortune. The company also employs the use of "SynthID," a cryptographic watermarking technology designed to identify AI-generated content. Still, experts say the minor guidelines set by the company aren't sufficient. "To their credit, Google has a system that makes fabricated images detectable," NYU computer science and engineering professor Emily Black told Fortune. "Even if there were, however, recent research has shown that's not a full solution." The European Union AI Act, with transparency requirements for AI-generated media, required providers such as Google to make synthetic content detectable. Google's compliance to that approach was by embedding the SynthIDs into their generated images. Black also notes that SynthID is "invisible to the naked eye," and is a way for computers to check if an image was generated with AI. For AI-generated images to be noticed by users, it has to include a watermark over the image. In the case of Google Earth and Nano Banana, only digital watermarks were used, meaning images were not immediately noticeable as AI-generated. This also means images that were screenshotted, or recreated outside of Google's platform would not include the same metadata from the original Nano Banana fabrication. "We need policymakers to be thinking about this and collaborating with experts to come up with better solutions," she told Fortune. The professor also pointed to changes in US AI policy. Black currently researches how AI outputs can influence user decisions and trust. This can lead to real-life negative results, like poor investment decisions based on viewing incorrect financial information hallucinated by large language models. According to the professor, her research -- while focusing on AI hallucinations and text-based AI systems -- demonstrates that simply disclosing information is AI-generated may not prevent people from trusting that information. "In our ongoing work on user trust of AI hallucinations, we've found that run-of-the-mill disclosures are often not effective at dissuading users from following harmful advice," Black said. "Even with disclaimers like, 'AI chatbots can make mistakes. Check important information,' the presence of incorrect AI-generated advice significantly increases a user's reported likelihood of taking a harmful future action." Google told Fortune it was rolling back the feature "while implementing stronger guardrails," acknowledging that the generated imagery that users were manipulating appeared to violate company policies. Artificial intelligence creates artificial trust Generative AI has become commonplace across chatbots, design software and image generators, where users generally understand they're creating fictional or artistic content. Google Earth, historically, occupied a different role. For nearly two decades, it has served as a visual record of the physical world, relied upon by everyone as an up-to-date feed of the planet. That reputation changes how users interpret what they see. Google's trust from consumers means users often approach the imagery inside the platform with an assumption that what they are seeing corresponds to reality. Now, with AI being integrated in what used to be considered a real-feed of planet Earth, it causes even Google Earth images to be scrutinized under a microscope. Henk Van Ess, an international expert in online research methods in AI, wrote in a note following Google's introduction of the Google Earth system: "An official can now look at a genuine photograph of a genuine atrocity and say: AI. He doesn't need the tool for that. He needs everyone to know the tool exists." Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the Google Earth feature will return after additional safeguards are developed.

Google Earth's AI misadventure lasted only a day. It was a tale of dangerous ignorance.

Nuclear reactors, tanks, and historical destruction on a life-like satellite map? Yeah, that's bad. Technology behemoths are clearly not reading the room, or they are just moving faster than they should when it comes to AI deployment. Google has already stuffed its Gemini AI in every corner of its software stack, from Android to daily productivity tools like Gmail that are used by hundreds of millions of users every day. AI is everywhere. Not all of it is bad, mind you. But in a few places, it just feels forced. In its latest AI-fication experiment, the company targeted Google Earth. The idea was to let the audience use its Nano Banana 2 AI image generator and make images that can be placed on the map view. On paper, it's a cool idea. What would the Colosseum of Rome look like in your urban neighborhood? Yeah, fun stuff like that. Recommended Videos What if I put a nuclear reactor on the map of an enemy state, or a tank on the soil of a war-torn nation? Well, that's a problem, and this is exactly what Google Earth produced without any inhibition. What's the big fuss, huh? Alright, let's go back to the origins and the good intentions first. This is what Google had in mind: "For the first time, you can generate custom images using Google Earth's satellite, aerial, and 3D imagery alongside Nano Banana, which creates concepts grounded in the real world. Just zoom in to a place in Google Earth on web, tap "create image," and type whatever you want to see." Here's the problem. AI is not always a welcome guest. In fact, Google's AI has been misused in numerous ways by multiple bad actors in the not-too-distant past. In a disclosure submitted before Australia's eSafety Commission, it was reported that Gemini AI was abused to create AI-generated deepfake terrorism and child abuse material. Earlier this year, Google's Cloud unit disclosed usage of Gemini by cybercriminals engaged in malware and surveillance operations. Merely a few days ago, Google filed a lawsuit against a China-linked network over usage of Gemini to launch large-scale phishing campaigns. Even for a regular user, it's easy to trick Google's AI image generator into creating something as disturbing as a Nazi Spongebob. The situation with OpenAI's ChatGPT image generation model is not too different. Google just flew dangerously close to the proverbial Sun. The latest AI playground for the company was Google Earth, and the misadventure lasted merely a day. Henk van Ess, an online research expert, gave the new AI feature a spin and quickly tore it to shreds. This is what he wrote in his newsletter, Digital Digging: "Tonight I typed just one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees near the Mexican border. Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. Then I put a fatal crash on a street in Amsterdam. Google's own satellite imagery underneath all three. What on earth is Google doing?" So many layers That was not the end of the problem. The Nano Banana engine simply complied with the problematic AI image generation requests without any counter. "Nothing was refused, nothing was softened, and nothing suggested I try a different prompt," van Ess wrote. Let's give some quarter to Google here. AI image generators usually focus on avoiding stuff like sexualized imagery, weapons, racist stereotyping, and other such obviously bad requests. It can't handle stuff that seems normal, but can stir an international relations storm. Placing a nuclear reactor on the map of Iran, or putting a bomb crater on a Gaza hospital, are two such samples of "innocent failures," if I can put it that way. But that's not the end of Google's AI oversight. The AI-generated imagery on Google Earth passed through AI checkers without raising any alarms. BBC also stress-tested the tool, and it coughed up controversial stuff such as Russian tanks moving on Ukrainian land, the Eiffel Tower lying collapsed on the ground, and the great pyramids of Egypt swallowed by a giant sinkhole. Worryingly, the research notes that it was possible to trick Google's Gemini into saying that these fake images were legitimate. Unsurprisingly, third-party AI checker tools also failed in numerous instances. To recall, all AI-generated images created by Gemini (and Nano Banana) come with an invisible SynthID watermark (developed by Google DeepMind) and a visible watermark, as well. That's not even my biggest concern. The internet is brimming with eerily realistic AI-generated content, and a lot of people don't even suspect that it's fake. And even if they suspect, they simply don't know how to verify its authenticity and detect if it was AI. In a lot of cases, people simply don't have the incentive to fact-check doubtful images. "Journalists might be able to check that image... and report on it. But again, not everyone is going to do that," AI researcher, Henry Ajder, told the BBC. I talked to three fact-checkers associated with the Poynter-backed International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), and they told me that there is a huge digital literacy gap. And yeah, in most cases, they simply don't have a reason to verify a synthetic image's true origin and flag it publicly. This was just bad Nonetheless, Google's AI experiment with letting users express their creativity was a case of stunning ignorance. Thankfully, the company did a course correction and pulled it quickly. "We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails," the company shared in a statement on its official blog. I suspect that this feature rollback was swift because the stakes were much higher. AI image models can easily be tricked into violating copyright guardrails, produce sexualized images, and raise all kinds of visual hell. Look no further than the Grok AI on X, formerly Twitter. Google pulled this feature so urgently, I reckon, because it could escalate into an international storm. Google bows down to political powers and shows a different territorial map, depending on where you live. The border disputes between India-Pakistan and India-China are two such examples, and you can read more about them in this analysis by The Washington Post. Also, let's not forget the incredible international pressure on Google when it comes to AI supremacy wars and the data center protests. A nuclear reactor in Iran during times of active conflict with the US? Well, I'm not surprised (and also glad) that the tech giant quickly course-corrected on its Google Earth-AI flub. Hey Google, maybe, stick to fun AI experiments such as using Nano Banana to digitize my wardrobe and level up my fashion game?

Google Pulls Down Feature for AI-Generating Fake Satellite Images on Google Earth After It Immediately Turns Into a Blatant Misinformation Crisis

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Google Earth is the de facto record of our entire planet. But today, the company undermined its own credibility with a dangerous new AI feature -- and then quickly pulled it down after people started using it to generate blatant misinformation. On Thursday, Google announced that it added an image generation tool straight into the web browser version of the app, allowing anyone to fabricate made-up satellite images of anywhere in the world. It was clearly a misinformation disaster. The AI tool, powered by Google's Nano Banana 2 model, could make a neighborhood look like it'd suffered aerial strikes, turn unsuspecting locales into a warzone, and depict a city as the site of a natural disaster. The AI integration left open source intelligence analysts, who heavily rely on the accurate satellite imagery to monitor areas and in particular conflict zones, especially baffled. Hank Van Ess, one such OSINT researcher, reported on his Substack that he used Google Earth's AI to place refugees near the Mexican border and put a nuclear plant in Iran. Both images could easily be used to fuel certain far-right narratives. "What on earth is Google doing?" Van Ess pondered. Part of the danger, he noted, lies in Google's own boast that the AI integration "creates concepts grounded in the real world." "Grounded in the real world means the invented thing is welded to genuine coordinates, drawn on genuine imagery, often in the same colours and the same light and at the same angle as the picture beside it," he wrote. "The forgery does not have to look convincing on its own. It inherits the credibility of the map it was born on." In our own tests, we found that the Google Earth AI would respond to a request to make a rural Pennsylvanian town look like it suffered a drought that caused dead crops and forest fires. The resulting image was fairly realistic, with huge plumes of smoke blowing over the area. In a less convincing demonstration, the AI made a town look like it suffered a nuclear power plant meltdown by turning a nearby river into toxic sludge and scattering random images of demolished buildings and cars too large for their surroundings. It also responded to a prompt to show the same town "on fire and full of soldiers." It complied with the request, though the requested soldiers looked like Little Green Army Men. The AI tool appeared to have alarmingly few guardrails. Van Hess used it to add a hospital with a bomb crater in Gaza. We also found that it responded to a request to show the White House as in the middle of a warzone, with the explicit instructions of adding "blood" and "fallen soldiers." Again, the AI had trouble producing humans that were proportionate to their surroundings, but it wasn't hard to imagine someone with more time on their hands tinkering with the AI until they produced something realistic. After Van Ess's tweet highlighting his findings went viral, Google responded with a statement. "We take misinformation seriously -- every image created with Nano Banana in Google Earth includes the SynthID digital watermark, so if someone is unsure about an image, they can ask the Gemini app or use Lens in Search to see if the image was AI-generated," the official News from Google account wrote. "In addition, we prevent image creation on harmful topics and are continually updating our protections." SynthID is Google's watermark system that embeds hidden telltales in images generated with its models. Beyond the reality that many people presented with potentially AI doctored satellite photos won't think to verify them with Google's tools, the system is far from perfect. But soon afterward, the company announced that it was pulling the feature down until it could be deployed in a safer way. "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world," the company added on social. "We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails. It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI generated." The risk was clear. Tal Hagin, who runs the AI-powered OSINT platform Golden Owl, fed Van Ess's photo of the faked Gaza hospital into Google's Gemini chatbot asking it to look for SynthID, and found that it couldn't give a definitive answer. "No reliable signals were detected indicating how the content was created," Gemini responded, per Hagin's screenshot. (In our own test, Gemini said it was "unsure if the image was made with Google AI.") Other testers found that they could give Cuba missile silos and put a giant bomb crater in the middle of the Kremlin. Whether Google's systems could catch faked satellite imagery that its own tech is creating, however, is beside the point. The worry is that the AI creations will fool humans, not other AI models. As a potential fabrication gets circulated online, screenshotted, and compressed countless times over, it'll be harder to use our eyeballs to tell what's real. Of course, the means to do this already existed. If a bad actor wanted to, they could've manually taken satellite screenshots and fed them into their AI image generator of choice. But Google took those extra steps out and streamlined the whole process, not to mention officially wedding Google Earth with a technology that's synonymous with distorting our reality and getting the facts wrong. A widely followed OSINT account fumed at this new dangerous paradigm. "Unbelievably irresponsible and does immediate, catastrophic damage to the credibility of satellite imagery," OSINTtechnical wrote.

Google Yanks Google Earth AI Image Tool a Day After Launch Over Deepfake Fears

Google's defense that images carry a SynthID watermark failed to reassure critics, and the company said it would only restore the feature after adding stronger guardrails, giving no timeline. Google has pulled a newly launched artificial intelligence feature from Google Earth barely a day after releasing it, following a swift backlash from journalists and open-source investigators who warned it could flood the internet with convincing fake satellite imagery. The company introduced the tool on July 30, letting users zoom to any location on Google Earth's web version, click "create image," and generate a scene from a text prompt using its Nano Banana model. By July 31, it was gone. In a statement posted to X, Google said people "uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world," and that while geospatial professionals had found useful applications, others were sharing generated images that appeared to violate its policies. It said it was rolling back the feature while building stronger guardrails. The alarm centered on how easily the tool fabricated events that never happened. Tech outlet 404 Media demonstrated it could produce a blast crater in Los Angeles and add protesters outside Google's own Mountain View campus. NPR generated images of Iran's Kharg Island ablaze and a flooded U.S. Capitol, both of which would be major news if real. Open-source researcher Henk van Ess told NPR he tried prompts including refugees at the Mexican border and a nuclear plant in Iran, and that none were refused. Satellite imagery has long served as a trusted anchor for verifying breaking news and atrocities, precisely because it has been difficult to fake. Bellingcat researcher Jake Godin cautioned that one-click generation would streamline the creation of fakes and accelerate their spread, adding that misinformation outruns any correction and that governments could now dismiss authentic images as fabricated. Google had initially downplayed the concerns, noting that every image carries its SynthID watermark, which flags it as AI-generated in tools like Gemini, and that it blocks creation on harmful topics. Critics called that insufficient, arguing few people stop to verify images before sharing them. Google said it would reinstate image generation in Google Earth only after implementing tighter protections, though it gave no timeline.

Google Never Should Have Put Nano Banana Into Google Earth in the First Place

Last week, Google rolled out its AI image generation model, Nano Banana 2, to Google Earth, its world explorer program. The company advertised the integration as a way for people to create infographics about different locations around the globe, or to generate historical landscapes of modern-day imagery. Users were also invited to generate their "dream homes" against real-world backdrops -- so if you had plans to build an extension on your home, or visions of a vacation house on the lake, you could visualize it with Nano Banana 2 in Google Earth. The news followed a trend of Google integrating its AI platforms into just about every one of its products and services (for example, last week it added new Gemini capabilities to Google Docs for Workspace users). From the company's perspective, it likely made total sense to add Nano Banana 2 to Google Earth. As it turned out, however, this is one product that Gemini wasn't meant for. Google Earth has already dropped Nano Banana 2 Just one day after Google launched this big Nano Banana 2 integration, it rolled it back. The company issued an update to its original announcement, which read: "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world. We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes; however, we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails. It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI-generated." This statement doesn't properly describe the images that users were generating with this tool. In my view, it went beyond "violating" Google's policies: The internet, predictably, used Nano Banana 2 to generate inappropriate and insensitive images based on real locations. Perhaps it won't come as a surprise to learn that one of the images that took off most was of a plane crashing into the new World Trade Center in Manhattan. Other images depicted the Eiffel Tower destroyed, or the Egyptian pyramids collapsing into a sinkhole. While many would likely understand these were produced in jest, plenty more could see these "official" Google Earth images online and assume the worst. But beyond the jokes, the potential for misinformation and disinformation was alarming. For example, one user demonstrated how they used the tool to place refugees shoulder to shoulder near the Mexican border. One could imagine such an image going viral, with viewers tricked into thinking the Google Earth still was an actual satellite image. Google likely has some guardrails in place preventing many image generations from taking place, but clearly those limitations weren't strong enough. And since anyone, whether they paid for Google's AI features or not, could use Nano Banana 2 with Google Earth, all one had to do was open Google Earth and fiddle with a malicious prompt until Nano Banana 2 complied. Generative AI has no place in a tool like Google Earth It doesn't take an AI skeptic to explain why this was a bad idea in the first place -- but then again, few AI companies seem to be employing any skepticism before jamming generative AI features into their products. Tools like Google Earth are meant to be educational. You use them to learn about the world, its geography, and what different cities and landscapes look like. I personally love spending time spinning the digital globe around to learn about a new location, and often drop a pin on a random spot to see what it looks like on Street View. The reason I do this is that I understand Google Earth to be an accurate, reliable look at the world; if that weren't the case, why would I bother? As such, it makes no sense to me for Google to introduce a tool that, by necessity, generates inaccurate and false views of the world. One of its selling points was viewing a place on the map as it looked in the past, but that's not what Nano Banana 2 was doing. Instead, the AI would pull from its training data to generate what it thought a historical representation of the area in question would be. If you asked it to show you what Paris looked like in 1726, it would likely overlay generic buildings and structures onto the map, rather than depict what Paris actually looked like three hundred years ago. What you're getting is the illusion of history; entertaining, perhaps, but certainly not educational -- no better than scrolling through AI history slop on social media. The same goes for the AI's "infographics." Companies like Google love to tout AI's potential as an educational tool, and on the surface, it seems like a great thing for Google Earth to generate learning graphics to teach you about a location on the map. But your generated graphic isn't vetted by anyone, and definitely not by an expert: The image that Nano Banana 2 spits out could be full of half-truths and hallucinations, and, what's worse, it won't offer any sources you can click through to check the AI's work. Casual users may retain the information they "learn" from these infographics, whether that data is correct or not. At its worst, this feature was a disinformation machine. If you wanted to convince people that something bad happened in a particular part of the world, you could just type your request in, and Nano Banana 2 could spit out a realistic satellite image of your idea for easy sharing on social media. At a time when AI is spreading misinformation at a rapid rate, this only pours fuel onto an already raging fire. Companies like Google should be looking for ways to separate AI slop from real information, not helping it grow. This isn't an argument against AI tools in their entirety, but it is an argument against embedding generative AI into an educational tool. What utility Google believes AI serves by taking truth and clouding it in falsehoods I do not know -- other than giving it yet another example it can point to in order to tout its AI "success."

Google Earth let me turn my hometown into a warzone with AI prompts, and the misinformation possibilities are disturbing

Google says it takes misinformation seriously, but that sounds as fake as the images I've generated with the tool. Another day, another step towards an AI dystopia. Google has just added a "fun" new feature to Google Earth -- Nano Banana 2, the company's image creation tool. All you need to do is click on the "create image" button, type in a prompt, and seconds later you'll have a phony picture masquerading as a real satellite and aerial image from Google Earth. Once upon a time I would have found this ludicrous -- that a tool designed to accurately showcase our planet would be touting a feature that lets you make up absolute nonsense. But now we live in a world where the most popular search engine regularly makes up lies. For a while, Google was convinced I was married, possibly because I, at one point, mentioned my character having a wife in Crusader Kings 3. At least this was largely harmless -- but Google's AI summaries regularly hallucinate and misinterprets things, to the point that it cannot be trusted at all. Manufacturing warzones, riots, crimes -- these are less harmless. But Google Earth now lets you create whatever slop you want. This morning, I asked Google Earth to generate an image of tanks and troops moving down a street near my home. I did not save the image, because I have no intention of putting something on the internet that could be used for some nefarious purpose. But feel free to try it for yourself. I should add that the image Google Earth created for me was not particularly realistic. Some of the tanks, for instance, were as large as buildings. And nobody is going to look at the header image I generated via Google Earth for this article and think "Oh god, an asteroid is hurtling towards us!" AI image creation is inconsistent at best. But Google realises this, which is why it lets you add more prompts to refine the image -- to make it as realistic as possible. Since the feature went live, I've seen plenty of images that, without knowing about Nano Banana 2's integration, look pretty convincing. Digital Digging's Henk van Ess created an image of refugees massing at the Mexican border, which looked troublingly real. It's easy to see how this tool could be used for propaganda and misinformation, to drum up hate and stoke fears. Google presents the tool as this cute wee thing that will let you add community gardens to abandoned plots or recreate ancient Pompeii, before the eruption of Vesuvius. That's not how it's going to be used. Google actually responded to the Digital Digging article on X. Here's what it had to say: This is weak. OK, yes, Google Earth includes a SynthID digital watermark. So, as per usual, you can use AI tools to identify an AI image. But this is an abduction of responsibility. We're the ones who have to figure out if something is fake or not. Using Google's tools to do it. As van Hess points out, this is only helpful if the image reaches you unaltered through Google. He ran a clip of him creating the Mexican refugee image through the AI detection tool Hive. It was 99.2% certain the image was real. Because it was real, in the sense that the recording of van Ess creating the image was legit. So it's pretty easy to bypass detection tools. And yeah, some savvy people will immediately be suspicious unless they can see the original image. Most people don't have time for that. They will have an immediate reaction. And then share it all over social media, where more people will fall for it. By the time it's outed as fake, the damage may have already been done. And the people who fell for it won't be going back to double check. What about the second part of Google's tweet? "In addition, we prevent image creation on harmful topics and are continually updating our protections." I turned my hometown into a warzone. That's not a bit of fun. That could be harmful. But Google Earth created this image in seconds. Is pretending that there's a vast gathering of refugees waiting at the Mexican border also just a bit of harmless fun? How about a bombed hospital in Gaza, or a nuclear plant in Iran? All three were created by van Ess. Sure, people can use all sorts of AI image creation tools to make fakes like this. But people are more likely to give them weight when they clearly come from Google Earth -- a tool that we've been trained to trust. This is one of the most powerful, influential companies on the planet not just peddling lies, but giving the whole planet the tools to create their own fun little bits of misinformation. The only comfort is that, naturally, Google wants to monetise this. Regular users will only be able to make a couple of images a day, reducing how much chaos they can sow, and potentially stopping them from being able to refine images to make them as realistic as possible. So casual trolls will be pretty limited in what they can do. But there is a free trial for new Google Cloud users, and the $75-$150 per month cost won't matter to the more dedicated propagandists. This sucks, and I am so, so tired.

Google launches new satellite image AI tool, alarming researchers

Washington (United States) (AFP) - Google announced a new feature allowing Google Earth users to generate AI visualizations on top of the service's satellite imagery, sparking concerns from researchers and open-source intelligence experts about the potential for disinformation. The "create image" tool, rolled out Thursday, integrates Google's Nano Banana 2 image-generation technology to let users zoom into locations and build images in seconds based on Google Earth satellite, aerial and 3D-mapping data. The company unveiled the feature as a way to "visualize history, create real estate plans and more." But disinformation researchers are warning it could enable bad actors to misuse Google Earth -- a key resource for fact-checking and verification -- to create realistic geospatial fakes. "Google spent 20 years building the reference the world checks against," digital investigations expert Henk Van Ess wrote on Substack. "Today it added a button that makes things up." "The forgery does not have to look convincing on its own," Van Ess added. "It inherits the credibility of the map it was born on." Brady Africk, a research analyst at the American Enterprise Institute specializing in satellite imagery analysis, told AFP the Google Earth update "makes it easier to generate convincing fake satellite imagery that can spread quickly online and mislead the public." "These AI-generated fakes, growing more common, may also erode public trust in satellite imagery, and make the jobs of journalists and researchers more difficult." In a response to AFP on X, Google said images created with the feature include SynthID digital watermarks, invisible markers embedded in media generated using the company's artificial intelligence tools. Users can ask Google's Gemini chatbot if a SynthID is present. "We take misinformation seriously," the company wrote. Google's statement said the company prevents "image creation on harmful topics" and its AI policy instructs users against "misinformation, misrepresentation or misleading activities." Yet AFP's tests of the feature Friday were able to fabricate satellite images that could have serious global consequences: an explosion in Paris, a nuclear site in Iran, a bomb crater in Russia and an Islamic State group training ground in Syria. The tool also fulfilled prompts to visualize other fake scenes, including floods across Bangladesh, a migrant caravan camped at the US-Mexico border and a suspicious warehouse housing vans in Georgia -- one of several states US President Donald Trump has falsely accused of widespread election fraud. Similar fakes have had real-world impacts. In 2023, an AI image depicting an explosion at the Pentagon briefly rattled the markets. Early in the US war with Iran, an AI-altered satellite image depicting a destroyed US military base garnered millions of views across platforms. "I cannot stress how irresponsible this is," Ross Burley, executive director of the London-based Centre for Information Resilience, told AFP. "Trust in satellite imagery has taken decades to build and could be irrevocably damaged overnight." The group is calling on Google to reverse the decision, Burley said. GeoConfirmed, a volunteer-driven open-source intelligence project that verifies visuals from conflicts around the globe, also urged Google to reconsider. "We are already observing individuals exploiting the new Google Earth web tool to make military positions, relabel buildings as schools, and experiment with manipulating the information environment," the group wrote on X. "The primary, and perhaps only, practical use of this tool appears to be the creation and dissemination of mis- and disinformation."

Google Earth quickly added and removed AI image generation for obvious reasons

On July 30, Google added a new feature to its expansive and invaluable reference tool, Google Earth, that was subsequently removed on July 31. The feature was AI-generated images, powered by Nano Banana 2, that let anyone take real-world satellite images and then use those as a basis for creating anything they could think of. As reported by Digital Digging with Henk van Ess, he was able to create images of a fatal car crash in the streets of Amsterdam, a nuclear power plant in Iran, refugees at a border, and other images that could then be used to spread misinformation or simply add to the general feeling that AI is making it increasingly harder to differentiate between what's real and what's fake. With the tool, other publications were able to create realistic images showcasing the White House as a battlefield, and other dramatically fake images. Google's own announcement on the addition was a little tone deaf too, as although each generated image contains a SynthID digital watermark, its own examples highlighted non-essential things like making the Colosseum in Italy look brand-new, or showing what a massive shopping mall would look like on an empty lot. Stuff that makes the obvious and inherent risk of being able to create any image you want from satellite imagery via a simple prompt a very real problem to solve. And on that note, it seems that there were no restrictions at all on what could be generated or where, which is why the feature was removed so soon after being deployed. "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world," the company writes in an update on the announcement post for Nano Banana coming to Google Earth. "We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes; however, we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails. It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI-generated." Google removing the feature makes sense; however, it sounds like there are plans to bring it back sometime in the future.

Google Earth's New AI Feature Could Create False Images of Real Places. It Lasted 1 Day

Nano Banana 2 -- powered by Google's core AI platform, Gemini -- allowed users to enter a prompt for any location on the planet to produce convincing but fabricated scenes based on Google Earth's satellite, aerial, and 3D data. "We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes," Google said in a statement posted on X, "however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails." The company did not offer details of the offending images. It also noted that those images "didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI-generated."

Alphabet's Google Pauses New Earth AI Image Generator One Day After Launch as Fake Images Raise Misinform

Google Earth AI Feature Put on Hold The tool, powered by Google's Nano Banana 2 AI model, allowed users to create photorealistic images based on Google Earth's satellite, aerial and 3D imagery. Users could enter text prompts to generate altered or imagined scenes at locations around the world. Google said the feature had shown promise for professional use but also raised concerns about how the technology could be misused. "We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes," Google said in a post on X. "However, we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies." The company said it was pausing the capability while developing stronger safeguards. Fake Landmark Images Raise Misinformation Concerns The feature drew criticism because it could place fictional events or objects into recognizable locations, potentially making fabricated scenes appear authentic, Reuters reported. Images generated by the tool were not displayed in the main Google Earth experience and were labeled as AI-generated. However, the company did not specify what types of images prompted the decision or which policies may have been violated. Tech Companies Face Growing AI Safety Scrutiny The feature faced criticism over privacy concerns, including objections from a Hollywood union. Price Action: Alphabet Inc.'s Class A shares closed at $356.13, up 6.73%, while Class C shares finished at $356.65, gaining 6.88%, with both stocks edging higher in premarket trading, according to Benzinga Pro. According to Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings, GOOGL ranks in the 87th percentile for Quality. While the stock has underperformed in the short term, it has maintained a strong price trend over the medium and long term. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: Markus Mainka / Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Google pulls AI generation feature out of satellite maps after fears of misuse, misinformation

Google briefly unveiled a feature for Google Earth's satellite maps, allowing users to generate realistic-looking fake images on top of real ones, before removing it after widespread condemnation of its ability to easily spread misinformation. In its original announcement on Thursday, Google stated that the feature could "bring history to life," or "give your favorite place a makeover," and recommended that users use it to create real estate plans or custom infographics. One day later, Google rolled back the feature, stating that it was working on creating stronger guardrails for the image generation. "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world," the statement read. "We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies." Google also noted that the AI-generated imgages had been watermarked as such, although Hank van Ess, an expert in online research methods, wrote in a blog post about the feature that the watermark only worked using Google products - for example, using Gemini to analyze the AI-generated photo. Risks of AI generation on Google Earth go beyond watermarks can solve Emmanuelle Saliba, chief investigative officer of AI detection company GetReal, told The Washington Post that the watermark and other similar safeguards were insufficient to safeguard against misinformation. "They don't change how people consume information," she told the Washington Post. "Images are often viewed and shared in seconds, while verifying authenticity typically requires additional effort and context, placing the burden on the consumer." Van Ess also pointed out a danger presented by the tool from the opposite direction: not consumers being fooled by misinformation, but authorities having an alibi by which to claim true images as falsehoods. "An official can now look at a genuine photograph of a genuine atrocity and say: AI," he wrote on his blog on Thursday. "He doesn't need the tool for that. He needs everyone to know the tool exists."

Why Google pulled its new AI feature from Google Earth

Google has rolled back the image generation feature it introduced in Google Earth less than 48 hours after launch. The company said it had seen users sharing AI-generated images that "appear to violate" its policies and that it is working on implementing stronger guardrails. In an update to its announcement, Google said: "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world. We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails. It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI generated." What the feature offered: Google Earth launched the AI feature on July 30. It integrated the Nano Banana 2 image generation model into Google Earth. Users could generate AI images using Google Earth's satellite, aerial and 3D imagery as a base. They only needed to enter text prompts. Google promoted the feature for recreating historical sites, generating educational infographics, visualising real estate projects and imagining future cityscapes. Fabricated scenes raise concerns: Researchers and experts warned that people could misuse the feature to create convincing fake satellite images. They said users could combine AI-generated content with Google Earth's real satellite and aerial imagery. BBC Verify tested the tool and generated false images. These included the Eiffel Tower collapsed, a giant sinkhole swallowing the Great Pyramid of Giza, and Russian tanks in Kyiv. AI and misinformation researcher Henk van Ess also demonstrated the risks. He created images of a fake nuclear power plant in Iran, a refugee camp on the US-Mexico border and a hospital in Gaza with a bomb crater nearby. "The forgery does not have to look convincing on its own. It inherits the credibility of the map it was born on," he said. Researchers and geospatial experts warned that attaching AI-generated content to Google's trusted mapping interface could make false images appear credible. Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale's School of Public Health, wrote: "@HRL_YaleSPH deals with attempted disinformation related to overhead imagery and open source info on a near daily basis. Nano Banana opens floodgates to sum of all fears level spoofing of sat data that will hurt vulnerable people." Google points to safeguards: Responding to criticism before the rollback, Google said: "We take misinformation seriously, every image created with Nano Banana in Google Earth includes the SynthID digital watermark, so if someone is unsure about an image, they can ask the Gemini app or use Lens in Search to see if the image was AI-generated. In addition, we prevent image creation on harmful topics and are continually updating our protections." Despite those safeguards, users and researchers bypassed some content restrictions by modifying prompts. They also shared screenshots of generated images outside Google Earth. The company has not said when the feature will return. It said it is working on stronger safeguards before restoring image generation in Google Earth.

Google Pulls Earth AI Tool Within 24 Hours Over Fake Images

Google has pulled its Google Earth AI tool less than 24 hours after launch. The company launched the feature on July 30 through Google Earth's web platform. It used Nano Banana 2 to create AI images over real satellite imagery. Users could enter prompts and generate new scenes using satellite, aerial, and 3D mapping data. removed the tool after researchers raised concerns about fake images and misinformation. The rollback came after users shared screenshots of AI images that appeared to break Google's policies. The company said stronger safety controls are needed before bringing the feature back. Google also said generated images did not change the main Google Earth view. Each image also carried an AI watermark to help identify synthetic content. , "We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world." The company added, "We've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies." The feature created concerns among open-source intelligence researchers who tested different prompts. Researcher Henk van Ess showed how users could create scenes involving sensitive locations. Such examples raised concerns about fake satellite imagery spreading across social media. Google had added SynthID watermarks to images created through . The company said Gemini and Google Lens could help identify AI-generated images. However, experts warned that screenshots could still spread misleading visuals online. The quick rollback highlights a growing challenge for AI companies adding generation tools. Google Earth carries strong public trust as a source of real-world imagery. Fake scenes placed over genuine locations could make online information harder to verify. Google now plans to strengthen its safeguards before deciding whether to restore the feature. The move also shows how quickly AI products can face safety concerns after public testing.

Google Earth AI image feature yanked after users raise misinformation concerns

Google announced Friday that it's rolling back a new AI image-generation feature for Google Earth after users sounded the alarm over misinformation concerns linked to easy-to-make fake satellite photos. The decision to pull the tool from Google Earth came just one day after it was introduced to the company's satellite-imagery program, resulting in a slew of bizzare and disturbing images, including fake bomb blasts in major cities. Powered by Google's Nano Banana 2 technology, the feature allowed Google Earth users to generate photorealistic images within the platforms satellite, aerial and 3D imagery by simply writing a text prompt for any location across the globe. Users flocked to the new feature embedded within Google Earth's interface after it was introduced Thursday and were able to create particularly harrowing, realistic images of war-torn cities and homeless encampments that did not exist. "Tonight I typed just one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees near the Mexican border. Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. Then I put a fatal crash on a street in Amsterdam," 404 Media reported, citing a since-deleted blog post by OSINT researcher Henk van Ess. In a test by 404 Media, the outlet was able to generate skyscrapers in rural settings; add a homeless encampment to an an area of Los Angeles where homelessness is a major political issue; generated bomb blasts and craters in the City of Angels; and created protesters outside of Google's corporate buildings. German investigative reporter Ben Huebel slammed the new AI feature, calling it "absolutely irresponsible and plain bad for investigations," in a LinkedIn post Thursday. In a press release Thursday, Google advertised the generative tool as being able to create "custom images to help you visualize history, create real estate plans and more." "Have you ever looked at an empty lot in your neighborhood and imagined a community garden, or wondered what your city looked like a century ago? Now Nano Banana 2's image generation capabilities in Google Earth can show you both," the press release read. However, Huebel strongly disagreed with the advertising of the AI product and said "this isn't what many people will use it for." "If you type the address of your workplace and then prompt it to "make it look like a drone attack happened here," it will create a damning image that looks very close to what we've seen in Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East, and other war-torn conflict zones," he wrote. "It's harrowing and horrific, and it will make verification work much more difficult," Huebel added, acknowledging that even if people "use detection tools to determine that an image was altered by Google, there are ways to override those indicators, no matter what people tell you." "This is BAD," he wrote. Van Ess told NPR that nothing was off limits when he trialed the feature. "I tried refugees at the Mexican border, a nuclear plant in Iran, a crash in Amsterdam, a hospital with a bomb crater in Gaza. Nothing was refused," he said. After amassing sharp criticism online, Google acknowleded on X that they "take misinformation seriously" and "prevent image creation on harmful topics" and regularly update their protections. Google also said every image created with Nano Banana in Google Earth has a SynthID digital watermark -- an invisible digital watermark built directly into AI generated content to help people identify it through asking the Gemini App or Lens in Search feature. However, less than a day later, Google announced it was rolling back the new AI feature in Google Earth, citing policy violations. While the company did not specify what types of images violated its policies, it added that they will be working on "implementing stronger guardrails" to prevent such violations from occurring.

Google withdraws Earth AI image tool over fake satellite imagery concerns By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) said on Friday it is withdrawing a new artificial intelligence image-generation feature from Google Earth after users created altered satellite images that appeared to violate its policies. The feature, introduced on Thursday, allowed users to generate photorealistic aerial scenes using text prompts. Concerns quickly emerged that the fabricated images could be mistaken for genuine satellite imagery. Google said in a post on X that it was rolling back the feature to introduce stronger safeguards. The company stressed that none of the AI-generated images had appeared on the main Google Earth platform. Dutch intelligence researcher Henk van Ess raised concerns about the tool on Thursday, demonstrating how it could be used to create a fabricated nuclear facility in Iran. Van Ess warned that increasingly realistic AI-generated landscapes could make it harder for journalists, intelligence researchers and fact-checkers to distinguish genuine satellite images from manipulated material. A Google spokesperson referred to the company's statement on X when contacted for further comment. Google has invested billions of dollars in artificial intelligence and has been adding generative AI features across products including Search, Workspace, Maps and Google Earth. The company is seeking to show investors that its heavy spending on AI infrastructure can produce new revenue and increase user engagement. Alphabet shares recently came under pressure after the company outlined a $205 billion spending plan that raised concerns about the cost of its AI expansion. The withdrawal of the Google Earth feature illustrates the risks technology companies face when releasing increasingly realistic generative AI tools that can be used to produce misleading content.

Google Earth pulls Nano Banana 2 after just two days: AI scenes spark alarm

Google Earth rolled back Nano Banana 2 today, only two days after launch. The company removed a tool that placed AI-generated photorealistic scenes over Google Earth's satellite, aerial, and 3D map layers, after concerns grew that fake geospatial evidence could start spreading as if it were real. That immediately set off alarms for journalists, researchers, and open-source investigators, because it gave users a way to fabricate the kind of geospatial evidence people tend to trust. Before long, scenes were circulating that showed a refugee column at the Mexican border, a nuclear facility in Iran, a bombed hospital in Gaza, and a fatal car crash in Amsterdam. Google said it pulled the Google Earth feature after images were shared in ways that appeared to break company policies, and said it will only bring it back once stronger guardrails are in place. The company also said the outputs were never added to the default Google Earth view and were marked with SynthID. Critics said that isn't much comfort, since watermarking won't stop screenshots from being passed around unchecked. If you use Google Earth for reporting, research, or verification, the speed of this rollback says plenty on its own. Google had pitched the feature for education, urban planning, real estate visualization, and historical reconstruction, but the near-immediate reversal shows how quickly a public tool can become a disinformation risk when the safety systems aren't ready yet. Nano Banana 2 isn't available in Google Earth.