Google kills AI image generator after 24 hours

Google has pulled an AI feature tied to Google Earth less than 24 hours after its release, following swift public criticism that it could be used to fabricate and spread false geographic imagery. The tool let users generate AI-created visuals and layer them directly over real satellite map data. The rapid reversal highlights the ongoing tension between rolling out generative AI features quickly and anticipating their potential for misuse.

A new wave of AI startups is attempting to address longstanding concerns from the illustration community by compensating artists whose work is used in model training. Pippa is one such company, positioning itself as a more ethically grounded alternative to competitors that have trained on unlicensed work. Whether financial compensation alone is enough to shift artist sentiment remains an open question.

Alibaba's Qwen team has moved Qwen3.8-Max from preview to general availability, marking it as the most capable model in the Qwen lineup to date. The mixture-of-experts model carries 2.4 trillion parameters and supports text, image, and video input over a 1 million-token context window. Open weights are expected to follow next week.

A federal judge has denied xAI's request for a preliminary injunction against a Minnesota law banning apps that generate non-consensual intimate imagery. The ruling allows the law to take effect while xAI's broader legal challenge continues.