In brief
- Google removed an AI image-generation feature from Google Earth on July 31, just a day after its July 30 launch, saying users were sharing generated imagery that appeared to violate its policies.
- Journalists and open-source researchers showed the Nano Banana tool could easily fabricate events that never happenedโa blast crater in Los Angeles, a flooded U.S. Capitol, Iran’s Kharg Island on fireโraising fears it could supercharge misinformation.
- 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 โuniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world,โ 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.
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