Google suspends controversial Earth image-editing feature over misuse fears

Google has suspended a controversial artificial intelligence feature in Google Earth that allowed users to manipulate satellite imagery, reversing its earlier stance after mounting criticism over the technology's potential to spread misinformation.

The Alphabet-owned company announced the decision on July 30 through its media relations account on X, acknowledging concerns about the misuse of the experimental feature.

"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," the company said.

"So we’re rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails."

The move marked a sharp reversal from Google's position only hours earlier, when the company defended the feature despite growing criticism from researchers and users.

In its earlier response, Google stressed that it takes misinformation "seriously" and noted that images generated using Nano Banana, its AI image-editing layer for the Gemini platform, included the SynthID digital watermark designed to help identify AI-generated or AI-enhanced content.

“If someone is unsure about an image, they can ask the Gemini app or use Lens in Search to see if the image was AI-generated,” the company said, adding that it continually updates safeguards intended to prevent the creation of inappropriate content.

Nano Banana has become one of Google's most widely used AI image-generation and editing tools. However, concerns escalated after users demonstrated how easily satellite imagery could be manipulated to depict politically sensitive scenarios.

Technology and AI researcher Henk Van Ess highlighted the issue in a widely shared post on X.

“Tonight I typed just one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees near the Mexican border,” Van Ess wrote. “Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. What on earth is Google doing?”

His post, accompanied by a detailed article outlining his concerns, has been reposted more than 1,200 times and viewed over 2.4 million times on X.

Google's initial response drew further criticism, with observers arguing that the company was effectively directing users to rely on its own verification technology to identify manipulated images created within its mapping platform.

Others questioned the effectiveness of SynthID itself.

“Google's SynthID only watermarks AI-generated portions of Nano Banana images in Google Earth (less than 25 per cent in tested examples), not the entire image, limiting full verification as AI-generated,” a context note displayed beneath Google's response stated.

Introduced in 2023, SynthID has since been expanded across Google's AI products. In May, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai announced that OpenAI, Kakao and ElevenLabs had adopted the SynthID watermarking standard to strengthen the identification of AI-generated content across platforms.

Even before the feature was paused, Google Earth labelled the tool as experimental and warned users about its limitations.

“Generative AI can make mistakes, so double check it,” a notice beside the prompt window in Google Earth advised.

By Nazrin Sadigova