Google pulls Earth AI image feature a day after launch

Google rolled out a feature on Thursday that let Google Earth users deploy Nano Banana 2, its AI image generator, to create fabricated images inside the satellite-imagery mapping app. Google said the point of the feature was to let people get creative with geography.

Critics quickly pointed out that the tool could be used to create and spread misinformation instead. The feature was prompt-based and allowed nearly any image to be superimposed over real maps, which struck critics as a recipe for a deluge of what they dubbed “geospatial slop.” One BBC journalist captured the reaction by posting, sarcastically, that there was no way an 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.

Only a day after the feature’s release, Google scrapped it. The company said in a statement that it had seen geospatial professionals using the feature for a range of useful purposes, but that it had also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appeared to violate its policies. “We’re rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails,” Google added.

The criticism is understandable, though it is worth noting that in the age of AI, most imagery on the web can already be manipulated fairly easily. Creating semi-credible disinformation no longer requires Photoshop skill — just access to an AI image generator, a category of tool Google itself sells, alongside many other AI companies.

Why it matters

The episode underscores a broader problem AI companies — including Google itself — now face: image-generation tools are widely available, so pulling one feature does little to address how easy convincing disinformation has become to produce.