Google pulls Google Earth AI image tool a day after launch

Google has removed a new Google Earth feature after roughly a day of operation because disinformation researchers warned that it allowed anyone to drop convincing fake scenes onto Google’s own satellite imagery.

The feature was heavily criticized with several professionals calling for it to be removed. Google attempted to implement safeguards that would allow it to keep the feature operating, but ultimately conceded.

Why did Google approve misinformation?

Google recently launched and quickly removed a Google Earth feature called “create image,” that used Google’s Nano Banana 2 model to turn a typed prompt into an invented scene layered over real satellite, aerial and 3D map data.

A product manager, Bryan Horowitz, said that users could zoom to a spot on the web version, tap the button, and type whatever they wanted to appear there. Google pitched it as a way to “visualize history, create real estate plans and more.”

However, open-source investigator Henk van Ess wrote on Substack, that Google spent 20 years building a trustworthy reference only for it to add a “button that makes things up.”

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