AIBRIEF
The "create image" feature let users synthesize satellite style scenes from existing Earth imagery. Researchers warned it could pollute a tool fact checkers rely on for verification.
Google pulled its new "create image" tool from Google Earth on Friday, roughly 24 hours after Thursday's launch, after disinformation researchers warned the feature could be used to forge realistic satellite-style imagery.
The feature, built on Google's "Nano Banana 2" image-generation model, let users synthesize scenes from satellite, aerial, and 3D-mapping data in seconds. Google had framed the use cases as "visualize history, create real estate plans and more."
Within hours, digital-investigations experts raised alarms about realistic geospatial fakes: planted explosions, fake nuclear sites, and synthetic militant bases that would look at home inside a tool journalists, conflict monitors, and open-source investigators treat as a reference surface.
"Google spent 20 years building the reference the world checks against," digital investigations expert Henk Van Ess wrote in a widely shared Substack post. "Today it added a button that makes things up."
A Google spokesperson told AFP the company is "rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails" and that "people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world." The same wire was syndicated by NDTV and SCMP.
AEI satellite-imagery analyst Brady Africk told AFP the rollout would make it easier to generate "convincing fake satellite imagery that can spread quickly online and mislead the public," eroding trust in satellite imagery as a category.
The rollback puts Google Earth back in its reference role, at least until stronger guardrails land.