Google withdrew a new AI editing feature in Google Earth within 24 hours of launch after users showed it could generate convincing fake satellite imagery of sensitive real-world scenarios. The tool, powered by Google's Nano Banana 2 image-generation model, let people type prompts to alter satellite, aerial or 3D imagery, but it was quickly exploited to produce fabricated scenes including a nuclear plant in Iran, refugees near the US-Mexico border, a bomb crater in Gaza and a car crash in Amsterdam, prompting the company to pull the feature while it builds stronger safeguards.

The feature was announced on Thursday and taken down on Friday after OSINT researcher Hank van Ess and others demonstrated that the tool refused none of their harmful prompts, generating imagery without warnings. Google said generated images did not appear in the main Google Earth experience for other users and that every image carried a traceable watermark linked to its Gemini AI model. The episode adds to wider concerns about AI-generated disinformation, following earlier incidents such as fake satellite images of an Iranian strike on Qatar and a viral fake video of Dubai's Burj Khalifa on fire, and comes as platforms like X tighten rules on unlabelled AI content depicting conflict.