Google Briefly Turned Google Earth Into an AI Slop Factory - Gizmodo

On Thursday, Google launched an AI feature in Google Earth that let anyone generate fake imagery, but the company killed it Friday after widespread online backlash.
Users exploited the tool to create misleading scenes, including a fake nuclear plant in Iran, a plane crashing into One World Trade Center, and crowds of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Google said people "uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world," acknowledged that some professionals found the feature useful, but conceded that shared screenshots appeared to violate its policies.
The company said it is rolling back the feature to build "stronger guardrails," noting the generated images didn't appear in the main Google Earth experience and were watermarked as AI-generated—though critics point out watermarks are easily removed with other AI tools.
Journalist Henk van Ess demonstrated the risks on X, saying he placed refugees near the Mexican border and a nuclear plant in Iran with single-sentence prompts, while Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch argued that no real person wants "AI sludge crammed into every corner of every product."
The episode highlights broader public resentment toward tech companies pushing AI into their products, alongside questions about what legitimate purpose such an image-generation feature could serve for the average user.