Google kills Earth AI generator after one day • Hacker News Board

Re: Google kills Earth AI generator after one day

#61

Post by reenorap » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

I think if Google stopped retreating so quickly with its tail between its legs after getting “embarrassed”, people would stop caring. All of the “sins” that were created via this is nothing that other AI couldn’t produce either.

Part of the sport in making Google look bad is because they know Google will predictably cower when they are embarrassed. If they just said “ya, sometimes people will make bad pics but who cares?” people would stop caring.

Everything that Ars Technica found in my opinion is nothing that other AI image generators couldn’t do on their own. What’s the big deal?

Re: Google kills Earth AI generator after one day

#62

Post by smallerize » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 2:04 PM UTC

Amezarak wrote: post #50

haunter wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh nothing serious just traffic accident https://cdn.xcancel.com/video/9829FB6B34807/https%3A%2F%2Fvi... refugees on the streets https://cdn.xcancel.com/video/7631603BD54FB/https%3A%2F%2Fvi... a bomb crater near a hospital in Gaza https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOgBJEcWQAA--zV?format=jpg&name=... a nuclear power plant in Iran https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HOgBP-OXAAATHWQ?format=jpg&name=... a plane hitting the One World T…

Did Google Earth actually show these as replacements for the true imagery? Or are people simply complaining that people were able to generate these images at all? I'm struggling to understand the controversy.

Instead of having to go out of your way, there's an inviting "create a fiction" button. https://www.digitaldigging.org/p/how-to-plant-a-nuclear-plan... In February this year, someone manually forged a photo like this. "The Tehran Times posted it as a before-and-after of a US radar site in Qatar... AFP and BBC Verify both ran the “after” through Google’s watermark detector and got a hit, though not before it passed 950,000 views. Building it had taken six steps — screenshot Earth, open Gemini, upload, prompt, download, crop... Tonight Manama can be changed in seconds."

Re: Google kills Earth AI generator after one day

#63

Post by pjio » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC

profsummergig wrote: post #44

VCFundedGenYer wrote: post #5

There seem to be very few adults in the room at Google as of the past few years. This also happened with Bard's (remember when they thought Bard was a good name?) racist image generator. Does nobody do QA, UAT, or UX testing anymore?

What red flags would the name "Bard" have raised for you if you were on that team?

Maybe I missed the reference like with Claude for Claude Shannon, but Bard always sounded like "Bart (Simpson)" to me.

Re: Google kills Earth AI generator after one day

#64

Post by steveBK123 » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC

jjulius wrote: post #23

hidelooktropic wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the AI overviews.

YMMV, but nearly every one I read has a glaringly incorrect comment. I frequently research off-trail mountaineering routes and the incorrect bullshit it confidently spouts at the top of a list of results (results which very much counter the AI overview) is liable to end up getting someone hurt, lost, or worse.

I also see this failure mode where it inverts the question and answer the affirmative to the inverted question (therefore the opposite of correct answer).

If you read too quickly or are on a mobile device, the clarifying information may be below the line break.

https://imgur.com/a/tKSQuA3

on a mobile device (iPhone Pro Max) with Large Text enabled you can see how the clarifying text starts to roll over to the next line:

https://imgur.com/a/wvNspMT

Imagine a senior on an older smaller phone with large text enabled, easily missing the Opposite Day answer.

Re: Google kills Earth AI generator after one day

#65

Post by d4v3 » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC

steveBK123 wrote: post #55

inigyou wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how they get you. They are trained to make you like them. They are not trained to convey true information.

Yes, they are at best misleading and often just present dangerously incomplete or misdirecting information. The more you know about a topic the more appalling the summary. I check variations of this search every month and it still fails at a reasonably high rate https://imgur.com/a/tKSQuA3

Can you elaborate? Are they not toxic? Are they toxic, but the chemical analysis wrong?

Re: Google kills Earth AI generator after one day

#66

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC

profsummergig wrote: post #44

VCFundedGenYer wrote: post #5

There seem to be very few adults in the room at Google as of the past few years. This also happened with Bard's (remember when they thought Bard was a good name?) racist image generator. Does nobody do QA, UAT, or UX testing anymore?

What red flags would the name "Bard" have raised for you if you were on that team?

[deleted]

Re: Google kills Earth AI generator after one day

#67

Post by Amezarak » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 2:08 PM UTC

smallerize wrote: post #62

Amezarak wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did Google Earth actually show these as replacements for the true imagery? Or are people simply complaining that people were able to generate these images at all? I'm struggling to understand the controversy.

Instead of having to go out of your way, there's an inviting "create a fiction" button. https://www.digitaldigging.org/p/how-to-plant-a-nuclear-plan... In February this year, someone manually forged a photo like this. "The Tehran Times posted it as a before-and-after of a US radar site in Qatar... AFP and BBC Verify both ran the “after” through Google’s watermark detector and got a hit, though not before it passed 95…

Right, I understand that you were able to generate these images from Google Earth. But nowhere can I find, including in that article, where other people could see your generations presented in Google Maps/Earth as if they were real imagery. The whole complaint is that people were able to generate these images at all. Or am I misunderstanding something? It seems like the complaint is that hypothetically you could generate these images and then share them elsewhere and try to trick people. Is that accurate or am I misunderstanding?

Re: Google kills Earth AI generator after one day

#68

Post by steveBK123 » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 2:09 PM UTC

coldpie wrote: post #56

Gigachad wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Managers all have AI psychosis right now and the only way to get by is going along with their nonsense.

The bubble needs to burst already. Everyone so braindead that they actually build and ship a product like this fucking garbage needs to be out on the street. Like, read that fucking prompt again. If that doesn't make you want to stick forks in your eyes, you're deep, deep in the psychosis.

Yes, at some point the world needs to accept that these tools are very good, to a limit, for specific human augmentation uses (coding, text manipulation) and stop pretending the TAM is "replace all white collar work across the globe".

Re: Google kills Earth AI generator after one day

#69

Post by obscurette » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 2:09 PM UTC

VCFundedGenYer wrote: post #5

There seem to be very few adults in the room at Google as of the past few years. This also happened with Bard's (remember when they thought Bard was a good name?) racist image generator. Does nobody do QA, UAT, or UX testing anymore?

It's a pattern much wider than Google or event technology sector. It's very apparent in AI craze trough society, public governance sector, journalism etc. For people like me (growing up in seventies) it seems that there is teenagers everywhere and nobody is responsible for anything any more.

Re: Google kills Earth AI generator after one day

#70

Post by steveBK123 » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 2:13 PM UTC

cyanregiment wrote: post #51

threatripper wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you get promoted for not launching a product? The interests of the individual and the institution do not always perfectly align.

People who want to destroy you at work (which I imagine is rampant at Google) will sometimes prevent you from doing something, but they might also encourage you to do it in such a way that you fail spectacularly. Some of my favorites from my career: 1. PM enticing me to "volunteer" to build a PoC over the weekend, to have it ready by Monday morning – come Monday, PoC is shipped live to all international customers. It…

> but they might also encourage you to do it in such a way that you fail spectacularly.

A skill one must develop is identifying no-win-scenario tasks that can be avoided. POCs are often such tasks.

A teammate and I got roped into some POC where everyone in the room seemed to silently agree the product was not fit for purpose. The meetings went in circles of seemingly trying to find anything they could do to use the product, rather than assessing it objectively on the use case the vendor pitched.

Behind the scenes it turned out the product was being pushed by someone seniors brother. So the thing was getting bought no matter what. What they were really looking for was the patsy to own finding any sort of use case for the stupid thing, integrating it and owning it.

Obviously a "the product cannot fail, it can only be failed" scenario. Run run run away.