Google pulled a new artificial intelligence image-generation feature from Google Earth on Friday, just one day after launching it globally, after users demonstrated that the tool could be used to fabricate realistic-looking satellite-style imagery superimposed over real, named locations.

The feature, called “Create Image,” used Google’s Nano Banana 2 model, technically known as Gemini 3.1 Flash Image, to generate AI images grounded in actual satellite, aerial and 3D terrain data for any location a user selected within Google Earth’s web platform. Google framed the launch as a creative tool that could let users visualize how a historical landmark once looked, brainstorm urban planning concepts for a vacant lot, or preview real estate development ideas before construction began, distinguishing it from general-purpose AI image generators that start only from a blank text prompt rather than a real, mapped location.

The feature rolled out globally at no additional charge on Thursday, available exclusively through Google Earth’s web version at earth.google.com rather than through the mobile apps, which together account for more than 500 million downloads on the Google Play Store alone. Generated images were watermarked, both visibly and with an embedded invisible marker, and could only be saved within Google Earth projects, without the ability to be directly exported or shared outside the platform, according to Google’s developer documentation.

Those safeguards proved insufficient to prevent misuse once the tool became widely accessible. Digital investigator Henk van Ess demonstrated the feature’s potential for generating misleading content by producing images depicting refugees near the Mexican border, a nuclear facility in Iran, a fatal crash scene in Amsterdam, and a bomb crater near a hospital in Gaza, all superimposed onto real, identifiable map locations within Google Earth’s interface.

The specific interaction model underlying the tool, allowing users to type a text description and have the resulting AI-generated image dropped directly onto a real satellite map location, drew particularly sharp criticism given Google Earth’s established reputation as a widely trusted source of geospatial reference imagery. Journalists routinely use the platform to geolocate conflict footage and verify the authenticity of on-the-ground reporting, human rights investigators use it to corroborate witness accounts of specific events, and academics rely on it as a baseline dataset for geographic and historical research. Layering a generative AI tool directly inside that same interface effectively collapsed the visual distinction between genuine, recorded satellite imagery and synthetic, AI-fabricated imagery within a single trusted platform, a concern critics raised almost immediately after the feature’s rollout.

Google confirmed it was rolling back the feature after becoming aware of screenshots showing generated imagery that the company said appeared to violate its policies. The company said it plans to rebuild the tool with stronger safeguards before any future relaunch, though it has not provided a specific timeline for when a revised version might become available again.

Prior to the rollback, Google had highlighted a range of intended use cases for the tool through its official launch materials, including visualizing historical scenes at real-world landmarks, generating easy-to-read historical infographics tied to specific locations, and exploring conceptual redesigns of public spaces or vacant lots. The company positioned the feature as adding a new creative layer to Google Earth, transforming the platform from a tool that primarily shows users the world as it currently exists into one that also lets them imagine what a given location could become in the future.

Nano Banana 2 sits within a broader family of Google image-generation models of varying capability tiers. It occupies a mid-tier position between the lighter-weight Nano Banana 2 Lite, which can generate standalone images in roughly four seconds through Google’s developer API at a cost of $0.034 per image, and the more capable Nano Banana Pro, which Google has reserved for more complex, professional-grade image rendering tasks.

The rapid rollback comes just days after Google had separately touted the growing role of artificial intelligence within its broader product ecosystem, crediting AI tools with helping identify and fix significantly more bugs within its Chrome browser in June than the company had resolved across the prior two years combined, according to reporting on the company’s recent AI-related announcements.

The Google Earth incident adds to a broader, ongoing debate across the technology industry about how to responsibly deploy increasingly capable generative AI image tools within platforms that carry an established reputation for accuracy and trustworthiness. Watermarking and export restrictions, the two primary safeguards Google built into the initial version of the Nano Banana 2 Earth integration, proved insufficient on their own to prevent the creation of convincing, potentially misleading fabricated imagery tied to real, sensitive locations, underscoring the difficulty technology companies continue to face in balancing creative AI features against the risk of enabling visual misinformation.

With the feature now pulled less than 24 hours after its global debut, Google has not specified what additional guardrails it intends to implement before considering a future relaunch, leaving open questions about whether the underlying tension between creative flexibility and misinformation risk can be fully resolved for a feature integrated directly into one of the world’s most widely used and trusted geospatial reference platforms.

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The stocks of DB Realty and Unitech rose after top executives of these companies were granted bail in the 2G scam case. The DB Realty stock has risen 40%, while Unitech gained 4%. However, some of the intrinsic problems which plague these companies, and uncertainty over the outcome of the 2G scam case may prevent any major appreciation in the stock.

Scrapping of projects involving the government, delayed execution and difficulty in securing approvals for new projects – DB Realty has seen it all. The company did not launch any new projects in the September quarter and sold around 50-75% of its existing seven projects. Even the analyst community has washed its hands of the stock with most brokerages discontinuing their coverage on the stock.

The company’s net sales for the first half year ended September are down by 36%, while its net profit dropped by 76% during the same period. However, the company is extinguishing its debt by selling non-core assets.

At the end of the September quarter, the company managed to reduce its debt from Rs600 crore a year ago to Rs 230 crore. It is sitting on a substantial pileup of TDR (transfer of development rights), which can be realised to further boost cash flows of the company. However, the outcome of the 2G scam case on its promoters will weigh heavily on the business prospects of the company which has its projects predominantly in Mumbai.

Unitech is the second big real estate company to be impacted because of the alleged involvement of its top deck in the 2G scam. Besides the problems associated with all real estate companies, there are other challenges.

For instance, the company was at the receiving end of shareholders’ ire at its annual general meeting as they refused to approve a resolution to pay dividend on equity shares for the fiscal 2011. The company’s net sales and earnings have dropped by 17% and 45% respectively for the first half of this fiscal.
However, the business model continues to remain strong. Unitech has a presence in the affordable and mid-income housing segment which enables it to generate cash flows. It has been launching new projects, although the scale of execution is slow. Despite lower revenue recognition, it has managed to lower its debt through internal cash accruals.

It has an outstanding net debt of Rs 5,144 crore and a land bank of close to 7,000 acres with an average cost of acquisition of land of around Rs 250 per square feet. Despite strong fundamentals, the loss of credibility and uncertainty over the 2G probe will restrict any major upside in the stock. The stock continues to trade at a significant discount to its land value that analysts estimate to be at Rs 60.

MUMBAI: Alfa Laval (India), a subsidiary of Sweden-based Alfa Laval Corporate AB, today said its parent firm has raised the delisting offer price to Rs 2,850 a share.

In a filing with the BSE, Alfa Laval India said its parent company increased the delisting offer price after “considering the prevailing market conditions and with a view to reward shareholders”.

However, the company further said, “Offer price should in no way be construed as a ceiling or maximum price for the purpose of the reverse book-building process and the public shareholders are free to tender their equity shares at any price higher than the indicative offer price.”

Reacting to the news, the company’s shares surged by 14.40 per cent to close at Rs 2,710.85 a piece on the BSE. In the intra-day trade, the stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 2,742.

The entity that offers heat transfer, separation and fluid handling technologies would be delisted from the BSE and the National Stock Exchange.

In September 2011, the company’s board had accepted the delisting proposal and in October fixed a floor price of Rs 2,045 a share to buy out the outstanding public float.
Alfa Laval (India) had said the promoter firm would make a delisting offer to acquire up to 2,040,202 shares, accounting for 11.23 per cent stake in the domestic entity.

At present, the promoter company holds 88.77 per cent stake in Alfa Laval (India).

KOLKATA: Hundreds of worried fans of ailing Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan today performed a yagna here to pray for his speedy recovery.

“We are using the auspicious occasion of Maha Shivratri to pray to Lord Shiva to help him recover painlessly from his health problems,” Sourav Banerjee of Amitabh Bachchan Fans Association of Kolkata, told.

Dressed in traditional attires, hundreds of fans carrying the actor’s posters thronged the Ekdaliya Evergreen Park in the afternoon for the hour-long yagna.

Ever since the news of Big B’s health problems broke, his admirers here, who have also built a temple for him in south Kolkata, have been a worried lot.

“We have been praying for his health and well-being ever since and are constantly monitoring media reports on his health,” Banerjee said.

Another of his fan blamed the actor’s “workaholic nature” for his medical condition.
“He has delivered hits after hits all his career and at this age of his life his body needs rest,” said 32-year-old Goutam Basak adding that they are planning a gala celebration when the superstar returns home from hospital. On February 11, 69-year-old Bachchan underwent an abdominal surgery but after he complained of acute pain, his stay at the hospital had to be extended.

Currently recuperating at the Seven Hills hospital, Big B’s health is now said to be improving.