Google has withdrawn a new artificial intelligence feature that allowed users to generate synthetic satellite images in Google Earth, hours after researchers demonstrated it could be used to fabricate scenes of wars, disasters and other false events.
The feature, announced on Thursday for the web version of Google Earth, used Google’s Nano Banana 2 image generation model to create images based on text prompts. Users quickly showed it could generate fake satellite views depicting aerial bombardments, refugee camps, nuclear facilities and other fabricated scenarios tied to real-world locations.
The rollout alarmed open-source intelligence (OSINT) researchers, who rely on satellite imagery to monitor conflicts, humanitarian crises and military activity.
Hank Van Ess, an OSINT researcher, said he used the tool to generate images showing refugees near the U.S.-Mexico border and a nuclear plant in Iran, illustrating how the feature could be used to support misleading narratives.
“What on earth is Google doing?” Van Ess wrote on Substack.
He said the risk stemmed from Google’s own description of the feature as creating concepts “grounded in the real world.”
“Grounded in the real world means the invented thing is welded to genuine coordinates, drawn on genuine imagery, often in the same colours and the same light and at the same angle as the picture beside it,” he wrote. “The forgery does not have to look convincing on its own. It inherits the credibility of the map it was born on.”
In tests, users generated altered satellite images depicting droughts, wildfires, damaged infrastructure and conflict scenes. Some prompts also produced fabricated images of sensitive locations, including the White House and sites in Gaza and Russia.
Google said every image generated by the feature included its SynthID digital watermark and that users could verify AI-generated images using Gemini or Google Lens.
“We take misinformation seriously — every image created with Nano Banana in Google Earth includes the SynthID digital watermark, so 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’s News from Google account said on social media. “In addition, we prevent image creation on harmful topics and are continually updating our protections.”
Google later said it was suspending the feature while it strengthened safeguards.
“We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world,” the company said. “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 AI generated.”
Researchers questioned the effectiveness of the watermarking system. Tal Hagin, who runs the AI-assisted OSINT platform Golden Owl, said Google’s Gemini chatbot could not determine whether one AI-generated image had been created using Google’s own tools.
“No reliable signals were detected indicating how the content was created,” Gemini responded, according to a screenshot shared by Hagin.
The incident highlights growing concerns over the use of generative AI to create convincing but fabricated imagery tied to real-world locations. While manipulated satellite images could previously be created using external AI image generators, critics said integrating the capability directly into Google Earth lowered the barrier to producing and distributing misinformation.
“Unbelievably irresponsible and does immediate, catastrophic damage to the credibility of satellite imagery,” the widely followed OSINTtechnical account wrote on social media.
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Faustine Ngila is the AI Editor at Impact Newswire, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an award-winning journalist specializing in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and emerging technologies.
He previously worked as a global technology reporter at Quartz in New York and Digital Frontier in London, where he covered innovation, startups, and the global digital economy.
With years of experience reporting on cutting-edge technologies, Faustine focuses on AI developments, industry trends, and the impact of technology on society.
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