Alphabet rolls back AI image generation in Google Earth over policy violations

July 31 : Alphabet's Google said on Friday it was rolling back an AI image-generation feature it had introduced in Google Earth just a day ago, after users shared images that appeared to violate the company's policies.

The feature, powered by Google's Nano Banana 2 AI model, had allowed users to generate photorealistic images grounded in Google Earth's satellite, aerial and 3D imagery by typing a text prompt for any location on the globe.

The tool had come under criticism for its potential for misinformation as it allowed users to create fake scenarios on top of real imagery of monuments and landmarks.

"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," Google said on X, adding that it was pausing the capability while it works on stronger guardrails.

Bold News stores the normalized extraction for evidence and analysis. This public wrapper shows a limited excerpt; use the original link for the publisher's complete presentation.