Google Earth pulls image-generation tool within hours: fake disaster images spread online

Google Earth pulled its new web image-generation feature in less than a day. The rollback came after deceptive images made with the tool started circulating online.

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The web feature let people type in prompts and generate scenes using Google Earth’s satellite, aerial, and 3D imagery. Almost right away, users were posting photorealistic fakes: refugee camps, a nuclear facility, disaster zones, terrorism scenes, even giant sinkholes.

What made these images more convincing than the usual fake was the source material. They were built on top of real map imagery, so they carried a level of visual credibility ordinary fabrications usually don’t have. Once screenshots hit social platforms, Google’s watermarking and the limited labels inside the product didn’t do much. Strip away the context, crop out the label, and the images could travel on their own.

If you use familiar platforms as a gut check for what’s real, this matters. Researchers have been warning that synthetic media is making false visuals cheaper to produce and harder to catch. One tracking group reported that AI-powered fake-news sites grew tenfold in 2023. That puts more pressure on journalists, human rights researchers, and legal investigators who rely on satellite and aerial imagery to document war crimes, displacement, environmental destruction, and disasters, especially in places where the information environment is already fragile.

For now, you won’t find the feature in Google Earth on the web. Google says it’s working on stronger guardrails to limit misinformation.