Google adds AI to satellite images, raising fears of deepfakes in the sky

WASHINGTON: Google announced a new feature allowing Google Earth users to generate AI visualisations on top of the service’s satellite imagery, sparking concerns from researchers and open-source intelligence experts about the potential for disinformation. The “create image”…

The "create image" tool had integrated Google's Nano Banana 2 image-generation technology into Google Earth, letting users zoom into locations and build pictures based on the program's satellite and 3D-mapping data

“What on earth is Google doing?” Misinformation fears spur walk-back of AI tool.

Security experts say generative tools risk eroding trust in satellite images used to verify conflict damage and incidents

Google Earth AI tool sparks misinformation fears over fake satellite imageryGoogle is having backlash over newly launched generative AI feature integrated into Google Earth, warning that it could become a powerful tool for creating and spreading convincing geopolitical…

A tool that allowed anyone to generate fake AI-generated imagery and superimpose it over real Google Earth maps quickly spurred backlash.

Experts told BBC Verify Google's new feature which let people generate fake satellite images could be misused.

This April 18, 2017 file photo shows people viewing a Google Earth map of Paris, France at an event at New York's Whitney Museum of Art. — AFP Google announced a new feature allowing Google Earth users to generate AI visualisations on top of the service's satellite imagery,

Journalists, human rights advocates and open source analysts recoiled in horror at the move: "The opportunities for abuse and disinfo are literally boundless," said one.

A text prompt was all it took to generate reality-warping images using Google Earth's satellite, aerial, and 3D imagery with a now-rolled back AI feature, like these images generated by Digital Digging's Henk van Ess that show "refugees near the Mexican border" and a bomb crater…