Google pulled a brand new AI image-editing function from Google Earth lower than 24 hours after launch.
The corporate launched the operate on Thursday, permitting Gemini’s Nano Banana 2 picture mannequin to entry Google Earth and remodel places with textual content prompts.
The operate, nonetheless, shortly acquired out of hand. AI researcher Henk van Ess, for instance, created extraordinarily life like deepfakes, together with faux refugee camps alongside the US-Mexico border and a nuclear plant in Iran.
Tonight I typed only one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees close to the Mexican border. Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. What on earth is Google doing? Verify my newest publish right here: https://t.co/N0h6CVECqS pic.twitter.com/WSjdcEXWJx
— 𝚑𝚎𝚗𝚔 𝚟𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚜𝚜 (@henkvaness) July 30, 2026
Different customers used the software to create AI photos of a nonexistent flood and a 9/11-style assault.
By Friday, Google had reversed course.
“We have seen geospatial professionals utilizing this function for a variety of helpful functions, nonetheless we have additionally seen folks sharing screenshots of generated imagery that seem to violate our insurance policies,” a Google spokesperson stated in a press release posted on X. “So we’re rolling again this function in Google Earth whereas we work on implementing stronger guardrails.”
Google added that the AI-generated photos had been watermarked and by no means appeared within the public Google Earth expertise.
Google shouldn’t be the one firm that has recently rolled out AI options solely to shortly take away them. Meta launched Muse Image on July 7 with a function that allowed customers to generate AI photos utilizing photos obtainable on all adult-owned public Instagram accounts that had not modified their settings to choose out. Meta eliminated the function in lower than per week and stated it had “missed the mark.”
