Google Earth's new AI can fabricate fake satellite images — a disinformation tool

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On Thursday, Google introduced a new AI feature into Google Earth which lets anyone fabricate all sorts of misleading or straight up inaccurate satellite imagery, from making it look like a specific place has suffered a drone strike to manifesting a nuclear plant in Iran.

Usually, Google Earth is an exceptionally useful tool for open source intelligence (OSINT) analysts to digitally monitor areas of interest and see how they change over time, say, during a conflict or disaster. Now, Google Earth can easily be used as a tool for disinformation.

In 404 Media’s tests, we were able to add skyscrapers to a rural area, added a “homeless encampment” to a part of Los Angeles where homelessness has become a major political issue, and were able to add a “bomb blast and crater” to an area of Los Angeles.

“Tonight I typed just one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees near the Mexican border. Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. Then I put a fatal crash on a street in Amsterdam. Google’s own satellite imagery underneath all three. What on earth is Google doing?” Hank Van Ess, an OSINT researcher, wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

The button now available in the web version of Google Earth lets a user type in a prompt while hovering over their desired location to create something new there. It is powered by Google’s Nano Banana model, according to a Google statement.

“If you type the address of your workplace and then prompt it to ‘make it look like a drone attack happened here,’ it will create a damning image that looks very close to what we’ve seen in Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East, and other war-torn conflict zones,” Ben Heubl, another OSINT professional, wrote in a LinkedIn post .

Obviously, this isn’t great for ensuring that screenshots from Google Earth are showing what anywhere on the planet actually looks like in reality. “It’s harrowing and horrific, and it will make verification work much more difficult, Heubl added.

Asked for comment, Google pointed 404 Media to a tweet the company posted on Thursday. “We take misinformation seriously – 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. In addition, we prevent image creation on harmful topics and are continually updating our protections,” it read.

This of course ignores the very obvious fact that plenty of people do not bother to verify themselves if an image is real or not. People spreading misinformation also often don’t care about eventually getting caught; they can cause a massive amount of damage to a certain conversation very quickly before anyone calls them out for their bullshit.

Heubl added, “Even if you can use detection tools to determine that an image was altered by Google, there are ways to override those indicators, no matter what people tell you. This is BAD.”