India, Aug. 7 -- For centuries, maps have shaped our understanding of the world, from mythical ranges like Africa's Kong Mountains to today's satellite imagery.

Google Earth earned deep trust as a near-real-time mirror of reality, vital for journalists and fact-checkers.

Adding generative AI that could fabricate convincing disasters shattered that confidence, forcing Google into a rapid retreat to protect cartographic integrity.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Europe's cartographers traded on their reputation for accuracy and detail at a time of huge societal change. But as demand grew for increasingly detailed maps of the world to support industrialisation at home and colonisation overseas, they didn't always get it right.

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