Adding an AI tool to Google Earth shook our trust in maps that has been centuries in the making

But that trust was brought into question recently when Google added generative AI to its Google Earth satellite image platform, making it possible to create convincing but fictional satellite images. By uniting Google Earth with Nano Banana 2, genuine satellite images were being edited. The headline of the Bellingcat article explaining its approach asked: “Who to trust, Google or the Russian MoD?” Until the recent Google Earth AI furore, the answer to that question was in little doubt. Trust in Google Earth has taken just two decades (it was originally launched as EarthViewer3D on June 11 2001 by a US tech startup that Google bought three years later).