Google Earth's Nano Banana 2 deepfake tool lasted 24 hours — why
google disabled its earth feature that let users edit satellite imagery with text prompts after just one day, citing policy violations and the need for stronger guardrails.
google removed a google earth feature that allowed users to edit satellite images with ai prompts after researcher henk van ess demonstrated that safeguards failed. despite google's claims that harmful topics were blocked and images were watermarked, van ess successfully generated images depicting refugees at the mexican border and bomb craters in gaza, bypassing ai detection tools. the rapid takedown signals that google is prioritizing the integrity of its geospatial data over feature expansion as it struggles to implement effective content moderation for generative ai.