Experts warn it could produce realistic geospatial fakes for misinformation, such as images of explosions, nuclear sites and militant bases
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenAgence France-PressePublished: 5:16am, 1 Aug 2026Updated: 5:49am, 1 Aug 2026Google rolled back a new feature on Friday that allowed Google Earth users to generate AI visualisations on top of the service’s satellite imagery, following a furious backlash from researchers and open-source intelligence experts about the potential for disinformation.
“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,” a Google spokesman said in a statement.
“So we’re rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails.”
“We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world,” the statement added.
The “create image” tool, unveiled Thursday, had integrated Google’s Nano Banana 2 image-generation technology into Google Earth, letting users zoom into locations and build pictures in seconds based on the program’s satellite, aerial and 3D-mapping data.
Trust in satellite imagery has taken decades to build and could be irrevocably damaged overnightRoss Burley, Centre for Information Resilience executive directorGoogle had described it as a way to “visualise history, create real estate plans and more”.
