Google Earth Nano Banana imagery feature

This was a Google Earth feature that let users generate or alter imagery of the current map view from a text prompt, using Google's Nano Banana 2 image model. Creators demonstrated it by reimagining a location, such as a stadium 100 years in the future. Generated images carried a digital watermark marking them as AI-generated and did not appear in the main Google Earth experience for other users.\n\nGoogle launched the feature on a Thursday and removed it the next day. According to The Verge, researcher Henk van Ess generated realistic fake images, including refugees near the Mexican border and a bomb crater by a hospital in Gaza. He reported that nothing was refused, and that a video generated in Google Earth fooled the Hive AI detection tool. Google said it saw screenshots of generated imagery that appeared to violate its policies and is rolling the feature back while it works on stronger guardrails. It said geospatial professionals had also used the feature for legitimate purposes.\n\nAt launch it appeared to be free to use within Google Earth. As of the source material, it is not currently available, and no timeline for its return has been given.