Google rolled back a new feature on Friday that allowed Google Earth users to generate AI visualisations on top of the service’s satellite imagery, following a furious backlash from researchers and open-source intelligence experts about the potential for disinformation.

“We’ve seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we’ve also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies,” a Google spokesman said in a statement.

“So we’re rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails.”

“We know that people uniquely trust Google Earth for a reliable view of the world,” the statement added.

The “create image” tool, unveiled Thursday, had integrated Google’s Nano Banana 2 image-generation technology into Google Earth, letting users zoom into locations and build pictures in seconds based on the program’s satellite, aerial and 3D-mapping data.

Google had described it as a way to “visualise history, create real estate plans and more”.