Google has added an AI image-generation feature to Google Earth that lets users create and place generated scenes onto real satellite imagery, prompting concerns from security and verification experts about misinformation. The Financial Times and BBC report that experts fear the tool could make it easier to fabricate satellite-based evidence used to assess conflict damage, incidents, and other real-world claims. BBC Verify testing found that while Google says its generated images include invisible watermarks intended to be detectable through services such as Gemini or Lens, some safeguards can be bypassed. BBC also reported that manipulated images it created could be mislabeled by third-party detection tools as genuine. The examples mentioned include an AI-generated collapsed landmark and other fabricated events. Henk van Ess, an AI and misinformation researcher, is quoted arguing that forged content can be “welded” onto authentic geographic coordinates and imagery, inheriting the credibility of the map regardless of how convincing the generated scene appears on its own. Google says it takes misinformation seriously, prevents image creation on harmful topics, and is updating protections, but it has not provided specific responses to questions about the weaknesses identified in testing.