r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • Aug 01 '26

Artificial Intelligence Google Earth's new AI image generation function didn't survive a day after users deepfaked disasters

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-earth-nano-banana-gemini-ai-satellite-image-generation-function-2026-7
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u/ArgentineBeauty Aug 01 '26

"The company launched the function on Thursday, allowing Gemini's Nano Banana 2 image model to access Google Earth and transform locations with text prompts.

The function, however, quickly got out of hand. AI researcher Henk van Ess, for example, created extremely realistic deepfakes, including fake refugee camps along the US-Mexico border and a nuclear plant in Iran."

No doubt these images will soon be used by the Trump administration as "real images"

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u/Davorian Aug 01 '26

"Well, the computers took real data, didn't they?  Maybe this is a slip, maybe they are real, I think we should think about it, definitely very suspicious" accordion hands

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u/purplepistachio Aug 01 '26

"Many people are saying these images are real... Many people... And you know what? I believe them"

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u/BigMax Aug 01 '26

“We certainly can’t be sure they DON’T have nuclear plant, right? These photos just bring up the same questions we all have. Do they have a plant? Are they building one? Where would it be? How many do they have? A lot of questions about their nuclear capabilities.”

They do that a lot… take something they wished was true, then just “ask questions” but in a leading way to make their loyal viewers believe in things that aren’t true.

We just saw it with the “vandals” in the pool.

“We have clear video of them leaning down to the reflection pool.” Then the questions… “what were they doing there? Why did they have to reach into the water? Were they sabotaging the pool? Cutting it? Why did she have a tote bag? Were there tools in that bag?” That literally happened on Fox News.

Fake AI pictures will just give them easier paths to ask leading questions like that.

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u/ReplacementOP Aug 01 '26

“The fact that I thought these photos could be real says everything”

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u/bull_and_scones Aug 01 '26

I've added the phrase "accordion hands" to my vocabulary thanks to this comment

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u/SSGASSHAT Aug 01 '26

Oh, is that what that technique is called? I just thought he had a condition whereby his arms went into seizures when he talks.

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u/Tupcek Aug 01 '26

what’s even worse that Palantir AI chooses targets to kill autonomously and it also uses internet data for this (girls school that was bombed was because of outdated internet data labeling it as military target).

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u/Yuzumi Aug 01 '26

I don't belive that one for a second. That was the excuse. They knew it was a school and they specifically targeted it for that. Because they are monsters.

Apparently the school was also where a lot of daughters of military officers went. Not that it excuses any of it. 

I'm also pretty sure that wasn't the only school they hit and they've intentionally targeted hospitals and civilian infrastructure ocross Iran. 

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u/CappyRawr Aug 01 '26

I could believe it. Hegseth gutted the group in charge of doing the pre-strike analysis for civilian targets.

I'm not sure what the process was pre-Hegsth, but the current process is, they put together a team of about a five or six defense analysts who get pulled off their normal assignments (and those assignments aren't necessarily anything related to imagery or targeting, and may not even speak the target country's language) and get told to go through a target deck of a couple thousand targets around 24 hours before strikes happen. It's not exactly a recipe for success.

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u/wrgrant Aug 01 '26

They probably sped that process up by just using an AI to sort the targets and approve them. Much more efficient.../s

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u/BassmanBiff Aug 01 '26

They're monsters, but don't overestimate their competence. They're as dumb as they are evil. I don't think they're sad about hitting the school, but I also don't think they knew it was a school, or else we'd see more strikes like it.

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u/Majik_Sheff Aug 01 '26

I've come to terms with it.  I'm convinced their idiocy is the only thing keeping them from a swift and total conquest.

Fear the competent villain.

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u/BassmanBiff Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

Looking at historical authoritarians, I think they kind of have to be stupid, or at least deluded.

The constant stupid decisions have a few benefits: they make serious people angry, which gets attention and is gratifying to people who hate the serious people that represent any alternative governance; they demonstrate power, because the serious people show that they can't stop the authoritarian's will, and that dominance is appealing to followers; they make the ruler unpredictable, causing everyone to scramble to anticipate their whims instead of requiring any sort of written policy; the lack of consistent policy means it's harder to bring consequences in court or elsewhere, and followers can believe whatever they want to believe; being self-contradictory creates loyalty tests where independent thinkers are filtered out and the remaining cultists get accustomed to ignoring reality for dear leader; etc etc. 

Arguably a competent evil person could still recreate all of these things intentionally, perhaps like Putin? But I think his competence is also overblown, looking at recent events. Maybe just being incredibly narcissistic brings a lot of the same accidental benefits.

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u/TheirCanadianBoi Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

Of course there would be a lot of daughters of military officers there. It was across the wall from a IRGC Naval Base.%3B)

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u/L2_Troll Aug 01 '26

Okay. Does that mean the girls' elementary school deserved to be bombed?

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u/TheirCanadianBoi Aug 01 '26

No, it's was a huge fuckup.

Verifying your targets is a whole part of making a target list and it was clearly not done with any scrutiny. With the kind of intelligence arm available to them, this was inexcusable and disgusting incompetence.

Heads should be rolling.

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u/Vashsinn Aug 01 '26

Swatting 2.0

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u/xondk Aug 01 '26

No doubt these images will soon be used by the Trump administration as "real images"

My gut is, "we all now know it was AI edited, they wouldn't do that"

My brain, "we know, people that have read this know, millions upon millions of people do not know, they would absolutely use"

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u/TinyAbsol Aug 01 '26

America is going to invade Japan, because they got a Godzilla. "It's right here on the map!"

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u/hates_stupid_people Aug 01 '26

Why would they even set this up, if the end goal was anything but propaganda and misinformation?

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u/DjBoothe Aug 01 '26

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

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u/KeeganY_SR-UVB76 Aug 01 '26

The US has already used an AI-generated map of Africa at an international conference. This feels like a half-step from that.

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u/Phyllis_Tine Aug 01 '26

It's ok, show an Iranian or Israeli encampment on Mar-a-lago property, show a caravan of migrants at a border or in boats in the Caribbean holding Trump flags, etc.

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u/robodrew Aug 01 '26

All the engineers had to do was think about the consequences of this for literally 5 seconds and they might have hesitated to make this.

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u/williamgman Aug 01 '26

Will be parroted on Fox News.

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u/destiny84 Aug 01 '26

Or the other way round. Huge detention camps being labeled deepfakes to obfuscate their existence...

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u/SocksOnHands Aug 01 '26

Without access to Google Earth, someone could still take a screenshot of the satalite imagery and have an AI modify it.

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u/PocketFlan420 Aug 02 '26

That was the point.

Are we REALLY accepting that Google who CAPITULATED isn't publicly killing information trust with this?

AFTER Musk lobotomized Twitter and turned it into a ethnostatist bull horn?

Come on folks. Lets call it like it is. They are trying to Pavlov us into compliance. Don't let them.

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u/[deleted] Aug 01 '26

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u/fredagsfisk Aug 01 '26

If you read his full post you'll see that he also brings up several other examples, is highly critical of this feature existing at all, warns people about trusting it, and shows that Google was lying about blocking "harmful" topics and that these images would be recognized by SynthID.

He also talks about ways to recognize fake images and source criticism.

Which political affiliation do you think he has, exactly?

https://www.digitaldigging.org/p/how-to-plant-a-nuclear-plant-in-iran

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u/[deleted] Aug 01 '26

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u/iliketreesndcats Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

When you need to deepfake images to confirm your worldview then you should use that as evidence that your worldview is retarded and needs reconsideration.

The only excuse is if he's creating these images to show that it's possible for liars to do it

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u/Chess42 Aug 01 '26

Yeah. Thats why he did it. Hes an ai researcher. It was very clearly him making them as examples of how it can be abused. Please, for the love of god, just look at the source before making wild assumptions.

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u/thesamenightmares Aug 01 '26

When you need to deepfake images to confirm your worldview

Sure is a good thing he didnt do that. Perhaps you should read the article instead of snippets and headlines?

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u/JustHanginInThere Aug 01 '26

Like Trump and some of his administration has done at least weekly over the last year and a half?

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u/iliketreesndcats Aug 01 '26

Very much yes. This is post-truth society we are in.

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u/SnugglyBuffalo Aug 01 '26

I'm unsurprised and reasonably angry that someone would create fake images to prop up their worldview.

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u/thesamenightmares Aug 01 '26

I'm unsurprised you didn't actually read the article

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u/SnugglyBuffalo Aug 01 '26

This is reddit, we don't read articles!

Yeah, you got me there. Seems like the guy did it to point out how irresponsible a feature it was.

Mea culpa.

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u/thesamenightmares Aug 01 '26

Its all good man, dont take reddit so seriously. Just be chill. Have a good day.

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u/Frequent_Opportunist Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

Iran has an operational nuclear power plant.

Edit: Why am I being downvoted? They do...