On July 30, Google integrated the image generation model Nano Banana 2 into the web version of Google Earth, allowing users to use conversational prompts to "transform" real locations based on actual satellite, aerial, and 3D imagery. The feature was rolled back in less than 24 hours, and today I will discuss this highly controversial feature.

Usage and Purpose

Although this feature has been taken offline, I had already learned about it through various channels. I originally planned to write an article introducing it, but before the article was written, the feature was gone :-(

When the feature was live, the steps to use it in Google Earth on the web were:

  1. Open Google Earth in a browser, zoom and navigate to the location you want to see.
  2. Click "create image."
  3. Enter a prompt and wait for the composite result.

Let's look at a few official demos.

Prompt: Render Pompeii as it looked in AD 78. The result:

Architectural planning:

The result:

It can be seen that the official original intention for use was quite legitimate — historical restoration, real estate and planning, preview of completed effects, and so on. From this perspective, I think it is a good tool.

Why Was It Rolled Back?

But things developed beyond Google's expectations. On July 31, the official website and social media accounts released a statement:

The statement roughly said: after the feature launched, some people shared generated screenshots that appeared to violate policies, so they decided to withdraw the feature for further safety enhancements.

This feature has been highly controversial since its launch, because in many people's eyes, Google Earth has long been a reference to the real world, representing truth and credibility. Some people overlaid content such as refugee flows, nuclear facilities, fatal street accidents, and craters near warzone hospitals on real coordinates. Because Nano Banana 2 is so powerful, the generated images became almost indistinguishable from real ones.

Even if these images carry watermarks, some uninformed people might still believe them to be true — after all, it's Google Earth.

For example, looking at the image below, even I, when seeing such a picture overlaid with Google Earth layers for a place I have never been, feel somewhat confused.

Former Google geo-products executive Ed Parsons offered harsher criticism, saying that people often treat Earth/Maps as a mirror of the real world, whose value lies in objectivity, and that Google Earth's insertion of a generative brush directly into that mirror directly consumes the trust and reputation the platform has built over decades. Organizations like WitNESS also noted that Google Earth has become a common "stable spatiotemporal record" in news verification and even judicial materials, and this feature essentially opens an official doorway to fabrication.

Conclusion

AI generation based on GIS cannot be taken lightly. The spatiotemporal foundation built on GIS technology has always represented stability, reliability, and truth, a mirror of the real world. Google Earth's brief 24-hour feature has sounded an alarm for the broader GIS community. The application of generative AI in the GIS field must be handled with extreme caution; beyond the functional value it brings to professional GIS users, its societal impact must also be considered. When the authenticity of GIS remote sensing imagery is also deconstructed, the cost of rebuilding trust will be absurdly high.

However, I think this was inevitable. Google Earth may re-launch the feature after security upgrades in the future, but in the AI era, no image or video can be trusted anymore, let alone remote sensing imagery.

References

  1. Reimagine the world with Nano Banana in Google Earth (includes retraction notice): https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/earth/nano-banana-google-earth-image-generation/
  2. How a banana broke the world’s mirror: https://www.edparsons.com/2026/08/how-a-banana-broke-the-worlds-mirror/
  3. Google Earth AI Fiasco Underscores Why Tech Firms Must Listen to Outside Experts: https://www.techpolicy.press/google-earth-ai-fiasco-underscores-why-tech-firms-must-listen-to-outside-experts/
  4. Google Earth risked ruin with retracted AI tool for making fake satellite pics: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/google-earth-releases-swiftly-retracts-ai-feature-to-make-fake-satellite-images/
  5. Nano Banana 2 removed from Google Earth: https://www.digitaldigging.org/p/nano-banana-2-removed-from-google