For a day, anyone could create and spread fake Singapore satellite images. Then Google backtracked
A new Google Earth AI-generation feature has been pulled after backlash and concerns over disinformation risks.
Source excerpt
SINGAPORE: Aerial scenes of destruction at Singapore’s Changi Airport, a fire at the Gardens by the Bay park, a collapsed bridge near the Marina Bay Sands resort: None of these happened, but for a day, anyone could generate such hyper-realistic images using just a single-sentence AI prompt.
Google on Friday (Jul 31) pulled back a new feature it unveiled just over 24 hours earlier, which allowed users to create such images by directly using Nano Banana - the tech giant’s own AI image generator - within the Google Earth satellite imagery website.
In its initial Thursday announcement, Google framed the feature around imagination and planning, such as visualising a new neighbourhood or creating a real estate blueprint.
But it drew swift criticism from experts across the fields of journalism, AI and open-source intelligence, who warned that the feature could allow disinformation to be created more easily, and more quickly.
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