Why the watermark did not contain the risk

Google said the generated images were watermarked as AI-made and were not visible to other people in the primary Google Earth experience. But screenshots can erase interface cues and circulate beside authentic satellite views. A control that works only at the point of generation does not protect the information once it becomes a portable image.

This matters because Google Earth is not perceived like a casual image generator. Its value rests on a reliable view of the world. Synthetic scenarios may be useful for planning, but the product must preserve an unmistakable boundary between observed geography, modeled projections, and imaginative output wherever that content travels.

Primary trail

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Reuters — Alphabet rolls back AI image generation in Google Earth