Digital Digging has demonstrated that a simple text prompt can now generate photorealistic images of refugees near the Mexican border or bomb craters in Gaza using Google Earth’s satellite and 3D imagery. The project, led by Henk van Ess, relies on Nano Banana, an AI tool integrated directly into the platform, to warp reality with minimal effort.
Google responded by stating it takes misinformation seriously and noting that every image created with Nano Banana includes a SynthID digital watermark. Users can verify these synthetic outputs by asking the Gemini app or using Lens in Search to determine if an image was AI-generated. The company also plans to implement the @verifyai tag to further label content.
* Nano Banana is the specific AI engine driving these edits within Google Earth.
* The SynthID watermark is the technical method used to flag synthetic media.
* Verification requires accessing the Gemini app or Google Lens.
