Google adds new generative AI tools to Google Maps and Earth for businesses

In short: Google is adding new generative AI features to Google Maps and Google Earth tools aimed at business customers.

What happened

Google announced the updates at its Cloud Next event in Las Vegas. The company says the new features are meant for enterprise users, meaning companies and organizations that use Google’s mapping tools for work.

One new feature is called Maps Imagery Grounding. It lets a user type a request and then create a realistic-looking scene inside Google Street View. Street View is the feature that shows street-level photos, like you are standing on the sidewalk. Google says this could help visualize things like a movie set or a planned construction site, before it is built.

Google also announced a tool called Aerial and Satellite Insights for Google Earth. It is designed to help organizations analyze satellite images stored in BigQuery, which is Google’s large database service for storing and sorting lots of information (like a giant filing cabinet for data). Google claims the tool can cut work that used to take weeks down to minutes.

Finally, Google is launching two new Earth AI Imagery models. These are AI systems trained to spot specific objects in images, such as bridges, roads, and power lines. Google says this can save companies from having to build their own image-detection systems from scratch.

Why it matters

For most people, Google Maps is for directions. For cities, utilities, and big companies, maps and satellite photos are also planning tools. If these new features work as described, they could make it faster to preview changes to real places and to find things in large sets of images, like searching for a single detail in a huge photo album.

Source: TechCrunch AI