Google kills Earth AI generator after one day

https://twitter.com/newsfromgoogle/status/2083249962150760610

46•BlueBerry2001•54m ago

Comments

enraged_camel•44m ago

I honestly don't know what the hell Google was thinking. I know shoving AI into everything is the rage these days, but this is simply an even more insane way to demolish the credibility of your own product than the AI overviews in Google Search.

Glad they came to their senses quickly.

hidelooktropic•30m ago

I like the AI overviews.

inigyou•29m ago

That's how they get you. They are trained to make you like them. They are not trained to convey true information.

pennomi•20m ago

I find them irritating because they will link a source entirely unrelated to (or worse, directly contradicting) the fact they are claiming. The Google AI summaries might be the most blatantly hallucinating model widely deployed right now.

I’ve had them abruptly try to turn mathematical theorems into cooking recipes before cutting off mid-sentence in a panic.

jjulius•18m ago

YMMV, but nearly every one I read has a glaringly incorrect comment. I frequently research off-trail mountaineering routes and the incorrect bullshit it confidently spouts at the top of a list of results (results which very much counter the AI overview) is liable to end up getting someone hurt, lost, or worse.

Zigurd•4m ago

I suppose I could think of worse use cases like: give me a recipe for a sketchy peptide shake, but not by much.

nkrisc•17m ago

Not every technology needs to exist simply because it’s possible.

trial3•43m ago

i’m struggling to think of a reason to use this other than shitposting

pluc•41m ago

any new data is good data

- all the AI corps

whycome•36m ago

What even was this

boredpudding•28m ago

You could take an area of Google Earth and let it be 'improved' by AI. So you could add a playground instead of a parking lot, or add migrants near a border post.

Due to consequences unforeseen by Google, it was used more for the latter.

mistrial9•30m ago

invalidate all remote sensing imagery from this day forward?

VCFundedGenYer•38m ago

There seem to be very few adults in the room at Google as of the past few years. This also happened with Bard's (remember when they thought Bard was a good name?) racist image generator. Does nobody do QA, UAT, or UX testing anymore?

projectileboy•20m ago

Google has always been a technology company, never a product company. It’s very deep in their DNA.

threatripper•19m ago

Do you get promoted for not launching a product? The interests of the individual and the institution do not always perfectly align.

phoghed•11m ago

The reverse of this is also bad. Numerous arduous processes that exist mostly because the people who ship nothing far outnumber those who do. I imagine striking a perfect balance is difficult.

breppp•11m ago

The issue here is probably because you need to show how your work relates to AI to get promoted

binary132•16m ago

what’s wrong with the name Bard?

KinetiNode•34m ago

there was something like this? i didn't even know lmao anyways that was to be expected , like AI in Google Earth??? C'mon

inigyou•30m ago

https://xcancel.com/NewsFromGoogle/status/208324996215076061...

witx•29m ago

Good, it was a piece of bad software not to call other things. Who though it was a good idea?

rdtsc•27m ago

What did that even do. Generate imaginary buildings and structures?

I am almost sure this was something for a performance or promotion: “Used AI effectively to…”

smallerize•16m ago

Some examples in the Ars Technica article include "refugees near the Mexican border", "a giant golden statue of President Donald Trump looming over the White House", and "a hospital with a bomb crater in Gaza". https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/google-earth-releases-swi...

haunter•13m ago

Oh nothing serious

just traffic accident https://cdn.xcancel.com/video/9829FB6B34807/https%3A%2F%2Fvi...

refugees on the streets https://cdn.xcancel.com/video/7631603BD54FB/https%3A%2F%2Fvi...

a bomb crater near a hospital in Gaza https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOgBJEcWQAA--zV?format=jpg&name=...

a nuclear power plant in Iran https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOgBP-OXAAATHWQ?format=jpg&name=...

a plane hitting the One World Trade Center https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOoW-0HWIAAdl0y?format=jpg&name=...

the Eiffel tower collapsed https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOoW-z0XkAAN0KI?format=jpg&name=...

an army base in the Amazons https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOgmohwWEAEn3gq?format=jpg&name=...

angrydev•25m ago

Here is the original blog post, in case anyone is curious about the 'good path' https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/earth/na...

> Ex: Help students visualize the past instead of just reading about it. Teachers can show their classroom a historic site and type, “Render a hyper-realistic view of what these Pompeii ruins looked like in 78 A.D.” The modern-day ruins will instantly transform into a bustling, colorful street scene from the Roman Empire.

coldpie•11m ago

This is all so fucking stupid.

Gigachad•2m ago

Managers all have AI psychosis right now and the only way to get by is going along with their nonsense.

ofjcihen•5m ago

There are a metric boatload of these visualizations created to accompany history texts etc.

AI for image generation is great but I’m struggling to figure out why you would ever use this if it’s confined to satellite imagery.

AlexAplin•19m ago

Any boast about AI accelerating the development lifecycle comes with an equal or greater stock that examples like this become more frequent when there are less opportunities for someone to interrupt them with a smidge of common sense.

bradfitz•19m ago

Well now I want to see the images that got this taken down.

vvbull•12m ago

This is predictable... they built a misinformation engine capable of generating things like falsified drone strikes, terrorist attacks, industrial accidents, and threatening images. Seems like no one paused and thought "what would the malicious internet do with this?"

650•9m ago

Product managers at Google have a strangehold on their bad releases. It's become a whole thing for engineers to have to please their XFN (cross functional) partners in product and UX for review cycles and promos.

intexpress•2m ago

I liked the feature (once I figured out how to access it, so confusing). But it only let you generate 1 image per day. So kind of useless.

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