Google Earth pulls back new AI tool after warnings about generated deepfakes

MANILA, Philippines – Google pulled back its new AI image tool, Nano Banana 2, on Saturday, August 1, after warnings about the potential for the tool to create deepfakes of topographic imagery, and that some users had already gone against the company’s policies on the use of the tool.

Google Earth’s Nano Banana feature, released on July 30, was an AI tool meant to allow users to “generate custom images using Google Earth’s satellite, aerial, and 3D imagery alongside Nano Banana, which creates concepts grounded in the real world.”

It was originally envisioned to help bring historical sites to life, or aid in the creation of real estate plans, among other potentially beneficial implementations.

A BBC report, however, pointed to the risks inherent in allowing AI to generate things over topographical images.

These include creating images that would serve as disinformation by generating deepfakes of things or structures that did not exist in a given location, such as sinkholes where there were none or missile craters atop of publicly known locations.

Before the pause of Nano Banana on Gogole Earth, the BBC said AI and misinformation expert Henk van Ess highlighted such risks. Said the BBC, “he created fake images of a non-existent nuclear power plant in Iran, a refugee camp on the US-Mexico border and a fake hospital in Gaza with a bomb crater next to it.”

Van Ess added that Google had “invented” images that could be “welded to genuine coordinates, drawn on genuine imagery.”

Google announced on August 1, Manila time, that it was pausing the Nano Banana feature to improve the safeguards against abuse.

Google’s full statement read, “We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world. 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.”.

While these generated images did not appear in the main Google Earth experience and were watermarked, further external alterations could make Nano Banana-enabled deepfakes a problem granted Google’s blessing inadvertently. – Rappler.com