{"id":24645,"date":"2026-08-01T23:36:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T18:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24645"},"modified":"2026-08-01T23:36:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T18:36:30","slug":"google-rolls-back-ai-google-earth-feature-a-day-after-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24645","title":{"rendered":"Google rolls back AI Google Earth feature a day after launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article\">\n<p>After Google added its AI image generator,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/tech\/google-adds-nano-banana-ai-image-generation-to-google-earth\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\">Nano Banana, to Google Earth<\/a> on Thursday, it reversed its decision a day later.<\/p>\n<p>Google announced the addition of Nano Banana 2 into its mapping platform, presumably to help users generate infographics about a site, see what it looked like historically, generate real estate ideas, and other use cases. Instead, as 404 Media observed, it made it very easy to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.404media.co\/google-earths-new-ai-lets-anyone-fabricate-completely-bullshit-satellite-images\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\">inject misinformation into Google Earth<\/a>, including making it appear like a nuclear strike had hit a location or that protests had taken over Google&#8217;s offices.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flex mx-auto mt-8 w-full max-w-3xl font-sans text-lg leading-normal md:text-xl md:leading-7\">\n        <span class=\"font-bold text-primary-400\">SEE ALSO:<\/span><br \/>\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/life\/google-maps-hiking-directions\" class=\"flex items-center text-secondary-300\"><br \/>\n            <span class=\"ml-1\">Reminder: Don&#8217;t use Google Maps for hiking<\/span><br \/>\n            <svg class=\"ml-1 w-4 h-4 font-normal fill-current\"><use href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/images\/icons\/spritemap.svg#sprite-arrow-right-thin\"\/><\/svg><br \/>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<p>On Thursday, Google seemed to try to smooth out the kinks, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NewsFromGoogle\/status\/2083024815686824277\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\">sharing on Thursday night on X<\/a> that &#8220;every image created with Nano Banana in Google Earth includes the SynthID digital watermark, so if someone is unsure about an image, they can ask the Gemini app or use Lens in Search to see if the image was AI-generated.&#8221; It also stated that it prevents image creation on &#8220;harmful topics.&#8221;<\/p>\n<section x-data=\"window.newsletter({ isDeal: false })\" x-init=\"init()\" aria-label=\"Newsletter Sign-Up\" class=\"relative invisible my-12 mx-auto w-full max-w-3xl md:my-16 ziff-component accent-cut-for-gradient-bg accent-cut-border-for-gradient-bg bg-gradient-fuchsia-secondary p-[2px]\">\n<p>\n            <span class=\"text-gradient-fuchsia-secondary\">Mashable Light Speed<\/span>\n        <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>However, come Friday afternoon, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NewsFromGoogle\/status\/2083249962150760610\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\">Google announced on X<\/a> that it was removing the feature: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world. We&#8217;ve seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we&#8217;ve also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies. So we&#8217;re rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails. It&#8217;s important to note that generated images didn\u2019t appear in the main Google Earth experience for others to see and were watermarked as AI generated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The backlash to the initial decision was quick. Replies to the rollback post on X include <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/gravity-falls-disney-censorship-alex-hirsch\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\"><em>Gravity Falls <\/em>creator<\/a> Alex Hirsch <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/_AlexHirsch\/status\/2083278550556393939\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\">saying<\/a>,<strong> &#8220;<\/strong>You guys are living in a complete bubble. Step outside Silicon Valley for two seconds and you&#8217;ll realize no actual human wants AI sludge crammed into every corner of every product. Touch grass. Talk to actual people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Another <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MalCat191392\/status\/2083266019775205717\" target=\"_blank\" data-ga-click=\"1\" data-ga-label=\"$text\" data-ga-item=\"text-link\" data-ga-module=\"content_body\" title=\"(opens in a new window)\">top reply<\/a> read, &#8220;There is 0 chance that no one on your development team didn&#8217;t raise exactly this concern.&#8221;<\/p>\n<section class=\"mx-auto max-w-7xl\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-wrap mt-8 w-full font-sans subtitle-2 editor-content\">\n<p>\n        <span class=\"mr-1.5 font-sans font-bold\">Topics<\/span><br \/>\n                    <a class=\"underline-link hover:no-underline text-secondary-300 mr-1.5\" href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/category\/artificial-intelligence\" aria-label=\"Navigate to the Artificial Intelligence tag\" data-ga-click=\"\" data-ga-label=\"$text\">Artificial Intelligence<\/a><br \/>\n                    <a class=\"underline-link hover:no-underline text-secondary-300 \" href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/category\/google\" aria-label=\"Navigate to the Google tag\" data-ga-click=\"\" data-ga-label=\"$text\">Google<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After Google added its AI image generator,\u00a0Nano Banana, to Google Earth on Thursday, it reversed its decision a day later. Google announced the addition of Nano Banana 2 into its mapping platform, presumably to help users generate infographics about a site, see what it looked like historically, generate real estate ideas, and other use cases&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/helios-i.mashable.com\/imagery\/articles\/02DmieNNAPDVAFXqtYxyXbY\/hero-image.fill.size_1200x675.v1785594907.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}