'I planted a nuclear plant in Iran': AI researcher's claim triggers Google reply
An AI researcher demonstrated that Google Earth's new generative AI feature can create realistic but fake images of sensitive locations like nuclear plants and disaster sites. Google defended the tool by noting that all generated images contain invisible digital watermarks to help identify synthetic content.
Why it matters
This highlights the growing risks of generative AI in creating misinformation and the challenges tech companies face in balancing creative features with safety guardrails.
Google has responded after an AI researcher used the newly-launched feature in Google Earth. The researcher demonstrated how the tech giant’s Nano Banana AI image generator in Google Earth can be used to fabricate geopolitical crises, military sites and fatal accidents on real satellite mapping imagery. The tool allows users to zoom into any real-world coordinates and type a prompt to alter the landscape with photorealistic AI renderings.How AI researcher used Google Earth’s newest featureHenk van Ess, who is an international expert in online research methods utilising the web and AI (as per his website), he “planted nuclear plant in Iran” and “put refugees near Mexico border” on Google Earth.“Tonight I typed just one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees near the Mexican border. Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. Then I put a fatal crash on a street in Amsterdam.
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