Google Earth AI tool raises misinformation fears

techJul 31, 2026342,325

Google paused and rolled back an AI image-generation feature in Google Earth less than 48 hours after adding the Nano Banana 2 generator, saying it will suspend the tool while it implements "stronger guardrails." BBC Verify found the feature let users generate fabricated scenes on top of real satellite, aerial or 3D imagery that could be downloaded and shared, creating images such as a collapsed Eiffel Tower, a sinkhole swallowing the Great Pyramid of Giza and Russian tanks in Kyiv. AI and misinformation expert Henk van Ess warned that invented imagery can be "welded to genuine coordinates" and thus inherit the credibility of Google Earth. Google said AI content carries invisible watermarks and users can check images with the Gemini chatbot app or Lens, but BBC Verify found ways to trick Gemini and some external AI detectors also failed. Security researcher Henry Ajder said fabricated imagery in fast-moving conflict zones could be particularly "destabilising." BBC Verify also showed Google’s built-in safeguards could be bypassed by small prompt changes; for example a violent prompt was rejected but a less specific variant was accepted, and a request to mow the word "Trump" into the White House lawn was blocked while a community garden at that location was allowed. Google has said the feature will return only after stronger safeguards are put in place.

Joseph Cox

@josephcox.bsky.social

That was fast. Google sent me a statement saying it is now “rolling back“ this AI feature after our demonstration and others from OSINT researchers www.404media.co/google-earth...

11154h ago

Aloysius Freeman112

is that two things that have rolled back since 404media reported on it?

Derek Brauders50

In what universe did Google senior engineers and / or key service directors think this WASN'T capable of being misused when released?. Do any of them operate anywhere near our universe? Idiotic to release this (no issues with coding it, just releasing it. Height of stupidity.

Shanon Taylor43

Why do tech companies need tech reporters to point out how bad their ideas are? Shouldn’t someone realize it during development?

Radical Complexity (John T. Murphy)17

They reversed that so fast the skid marks are visible from space. (Image not available.)

Kate12

Yall are doing gods work! Thank you thank you!

Wet And Loud™12

how does a company shit the bed THIS BAD and NOT KNOW IT

Quoting this

Rob Sheridan51

Bullying works! And so does good journalism. Keep it up.

Kate Bevan31

So I should think. Unbelievably bad and stupid "product" to roll out. Did nobody at Google think to apply the "what could possibly go wrong" test?

brendon bigley30

rip to the dumbest idea i’ve seen in a long time, thank god we barely knew ye

Thaumana 🎨 Commissions OPEN 🌟 VGEN15

People are wondering how decisions like these could ever have been approved, but at this point I'm convinced that those companies make such announcements on purpose for PR so that they can get or negotiate some kind of special deal on the black market or with the military later. No surprises anymore

Chris DeLeon Ⓥ make your own games15

very glad this got rolled back, though the article is still important and relevant to look at because it's a good illustration of what is still now unfortunately very simple for anyone to do in 2026 (i.e. instead of 1 click directly in google earth 1-2 extra steps that don't take any rare expertise)

male to fujoshi transsexual10

Public rollback, quiet reintroduction in a few months.

DCapTO6

Just because Google is immediately rolling back this AI feature, doesn’t mean this kind of disinfo creation isn’t already possible. The AI tools already exist, the intent is already out there & the tech companies are unregulated & already unaccountable. We are already in the Age of Disinformation.

please be nice to patrick6

i cannot fathom why anyone thought this was a good idea. who was this for? who is looking at google earth and is like "you know what would be useful? while i very purposefully look at real images of the earth taken from space? fake ones"

onekade5

Impact journalism! Nicely done, 404.

No kings5

Odds that it quietly shows up again later or in a form that is somehow worse bsky.app/profile/jose...

404 Media

@404media.co

UPDATE: After the publication of this piece, Google sent 404 Media a statement saying it was “rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails.” www.404media.co/google-earth...

6184h ago

Laminariales52

One (1) person with a working and non AI-addled brain could have foreseen the problems with this "feature" immediately, before the end of the sentence proposing it. But I guess Google doesn't have any of those people left.

The Infinitely Prolonged35

There’s no amount of “guardrails” that make this feature OK. “I want you to fake satellite imagery- but you know, responsibly, with guardrails” There is no responsible use for this.

David Dixon14

"Stronger guardrails" like "don't do it at all," hopefully.

David Mayo 🦜9

I could literally use Google Earth's innovative Nano Banana integration to add in some guardrails to the Google campus.

drkarate.bsky.social9

Its crazy this shit got released in the first place, really shows that they're just letting AI take the wheel with so much decision making

vinosmax.bsky.social7

Why does this tool even need to exist? Given what the product is?!?!

Quoting this

Freya Holmér150

hey maybe just, remove it? is there even a single good use case for the public to access something like this? it's a machine for lies, guardrails or not

jeeyon shim 심지연23

Thank FUCK, and also thanks to 404 Media for breaking this story

Kendra Albert9

404 Media continues to get the goods.

Cay8

“Stronger guardrails” have you considered simply not doing it? No one needs it. You don’t have to make it.

Xavier Velasquez6

If BigTech could take one day off from being the enablers of humanity’s worst impulses, I would be so happy.

Amos T6

Thank you 404 Media for all the work you do. It really shouldn’t have taken a publication for Google to roll back a feature that never should have existed in the first place

ddɐ˙ʎʞsʞɔɐlq˙uǝʌs@5

« But it's INEVITABLE and HERE TO STAY! »

Lindsay Britts in the Sky4

The year is 2070. I follow a series of hobo-glyphs to a abandoned mine in the desert. Two armed guards stand watch. I hold a scroll up and beg for ingress. Inside is the GeoCabal, the ancient and wise players of Geoguessr from 2013 to 2025. They will know if my map is real or fake.

nick4

This whole shit show is demonstrating that Google QA is either non-existent or that it's been completely sidelined and ignored as a cost center that gets in the way of shipping product.

jenny (phire)3

between this and @propublicaguild.org getting their first contract today I invite all of you to join me in blasting the newsies soundtrack (which you should do every friday afternoon anyway) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntre...

The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv)

@theserfstv.bsky.social

The only people this can possibly benefit is real estate agents who want to engage in fraud or propagandists and politicians who want to share fake satellite imagery

Google Earth is bringing AI image generation to Google Earth!

1303h ago

Jay from Quahog5

AI A LIE MACHINE AT SCALE

Leah McElrath

@leahmcelrath.bsky.social

Aaaaaaand Google is rolling back the AI function for Google Earth:

814h ago

Cheryl Rofer

@cherylrofer.bsky.social

Well, that was fast. Thankfully. It would be helpful for Google to tell us what they think they are bringing to the world in introducing a way to modify Google Earth views. We seem to have several gangs of adolescent boys competing to see who can do the newest thing with "AI" and get it out.

534h ago

Mon Mothra3

that had real "someones goofy hackathon project got shipped into production because someone else saw it and got punchy" vibes. which is kinda weird coming from such a huge company

Jamie in PEI1

What a perfect description of tech-bros.

Gwen C. Katz

@gwenckatz.bsky.social

I'm just struggling to imagine what a non-misinformation use case would even be. Like, it's Google Earth, you don't use it for book illustrations or profile pics or PowerPoint presentations or any of the other reasons people claim "but I NEED this LLM!"

434h ago

Gwen C. Katz9

Like maybe a 14-year-old would find it funny to put aliens in Roswell for 10 seconds, but once the novelty wears off, what's it for?

Chris 🧪⚒️1

I'm pretty sure its a combination of cutting costs on paying GIS techs and some middle management bro going down the list of products and saying "add AI to this".

Jesse Cushing1

maybe like architecture/city planning stuff? like "show me what this building would look like in this undeveloped lot" Still not a good use case (there is no good use case for LLMs) but its the only not completely fucked up reason i can think of

Maggie Harrison Dupré

@mharrisondupre.bsky.social

A new Google Earth update, which allowed users to alter satellite imagery with AI, let me cover my rural PA hometown with fake fire, drought, and soldiers. Google now says it's rolling back the feature. w/ @f-w-l.bsky.social futurism.com/artificial-i...

363h ago

Maggie Harrison Dupré14

The existence of the feature and what it was capable of was first reported by @henkvaness.bsky.social here: www.digitaldigging.org/p/how-to-pla...

Quoting this

Caio4

Existe algum cenário que isso aqui seria usado "pro bem"? Mapa tem uma utilidade só que é informar.

Mathieu M.J.E. Rebeaud

@chercheurjuteux.com

On a déjà pas suffisamment de problèmes avec les images générées par IA alors Google a décidé de rajouter une IA générative sur Google Earth, donc maintenant je peux altérer des images satellites directement pour mettre des trucs en plus à des endroits random. Comme une centrale nucléaire en Iran...

394h ago

Bill McCarthy

@billmccarthy.bsky.social

Testing Google Earth's new AI tool, AFP was able to fabricate satellite images of: - A Paris explosion - An Iran nuclear site - A bomb crater in Russia - ISIS training grounds - Floods in Bangladesh - Migrants at the US border - "Proof" of US election fraud The risk for disinformation is alarming

194h ago

Ketan Joshi

@ketanjoshi.co

Just so we're clear: the Google Earth images were not "added" to the "world map". That wasn't the risk, and there's really no point in lying about the danger here because the real risk was so significant

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perfectunion
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342h ago

lumberjack wharfie

@lumberjackwharfie.bsky.social

Google Earth *was* a modern marvel. Like it's kind of a miracle. Take that concept to any other point in human history and they'd be like "The whole planet??? from fucking SPACE?!? and the commonfolk can use it???" Aaaand our techbro oligarch overlords ruined it.

194h ago

draglikepull

@draglikepull.bsky.social

The thing that continually amazes me about genAI product roll-outs is that these companies can never articulate a real use case. They didn't start out trying to solve a problem and then figure out that this is the solution, they're just throwing AI in everything because they can.

144h ago

born miserable

@bornmiserable.bsky.social

reposted with alt text; gosh, it’s almost as if AI is used exclusively for evil!

a post from @NewsFromGoogle:

Re: our statement on Image Generation in Google Earth:

"We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world. 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.

So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails. It's important to note that generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as Al generated."

1:54 PM • Jul 31, 2026 • 183 Views

103h ago

PC Gamer

@pcgamer.com

Google says it is rolling back the AI image generation feature it introduced to Google Earth to work on "stronger guardrails."

114h ago

Steve Herman

@newsguy.bsky.social

Google has launched a new AI tool which allows people to create fake images by superimposing almost anything on top of its own widely-used satellite imagery. www.bbc.com/news/article...

64h ago

Craig Thomler 2

Would still be more accurate than the U.S. State Department’s Africa map slide.

3 sources

bbc.comNew Google Earth AI tool could fuel misinformation, experts say bbc.co.ukNew Google Earth AI tool could fuel misinformation, experts say ft.comGoogle Earth AI tool raises fears over spread of fake satellite images

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Google Earth AI tool raises misinformation fears

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