Google Earth Nano Banana feature pulled after fake imagery examples

Google pulled its Google Earth Nano Banana integration two days after launch after users demonstrated that the feature could generate convincing fake satellite imagery with simple prompts. The company said the images were marked as AI-generated and could not be seen by other users inside Earth, but screenshots circulated outside the product and violated Google’s policies.

The tool used Nano Banana 2 to alter or extend satellite-view scenes inside Google Earth. Google’s own examples framed it as a creative and planning feature: users could make the ruins of Pompeii appear as a Roman street scene or place a proposed building on an empty parcel. The company did not disclose usage figures for the short-lived integration.

Why did Google pull Nano Banana from Google Earth?

Google removed the feature after people showed that the same workflow could be used to create fabricated scenes that looked like satellite imagery. Digital Digging’s Henk van Ess highlighted examples including a refugee column at the Mexican border and a damaged hospital in Gaza, showing how a familiar map interface could give synthetic images more apparent credibility.

According to Google, the feature will not return until the company adds stronger protections. Google wrote that people place unusual trust in Google Earth as a dependable view of real places, a point that explains why this product failure is different from a standalone AI image generator producing the same visual output.

What was the Google Earth Nano Banana feature supposed to do?

The integration let users generate custom visual changes on top of satellite imagery. In practice, that meant prompting the system to add people, buildings or reconstructed historical scenes to places shown in Google Earth.

That framing creates a hard product problem. Google Earth is used as a reference tool, not just a canvas, so generated content placed inside it can blur the distinction between annotation, concept art and documentation. Google said generated images were labeled, but the examples that spread outside Earth show the limitation of in-product labeling once a screenshot leaves the interface.

The episode does not mean fabricated satellite views require Google’s tooling. A user can still edit a Google Earth screenshot in Photoshop or another AI image product. The difference here was distribution and friction: Google put image generation directly into a product whose value depends on users believing the visual record is grounded in the real world.

Google has not given a timetable for restoring the integration. For now, the withdrawal leaves Nano Banana outside Earth while the company works on controls it says are needed before the feature can be offered again.

This story draws on original reporting from The Decoder.