Google Earth's AI deepfake tool only lasted one day

Pompeii reimagined with Nano Banana 2 in Google Earth. | Image: Google Google has shut down Google Earth feature it launched Thursday that allowed users to edit satellite images with text prompts using AI. The tool essentially let users create AI deepfakes of the real world using text prompts; Digital Digging 's Henk van Ess, for example, intentionally generated images adding things like refugees near the Mexican border and a bomb crater by a hospital in Gaza.

On Thursday, Google's initial response to van Ess noted that images generated with Nano Banana 2 in Google Earth included a digital watermark and that the company prevented "image creation on harmful topics.