Selling Trust From Orbit
Satellite images are plentiful, affordable, and easy to fake. Providers will benefit from curbing their misuse.
Selling trust from orbit has become a crucial aspect of commercial satellite imagery, as the technology becomes increasingly accessible to both governments and private companies. The ease of creating and distributing high-resolution imagery has led to concerns about misinformation and misuse, particularly in relation to national security and geopolitical tensions.
When Google Earth briefly allowed users to manipulate satellite images with AI, it sparked a backlash that led the company to roll back the feature within days. This incident highlighted the rapid pace at which contemporary models can generate misinformation when proper safeguards are not in place. Authentic imagery, however, remains more available than ever before, with customers having a wider range of options due to the growing number of international competitors offering similar views from low Earth orbit.
The abundance of commercial satellite imagery providers also creates opportunities for illicit activities, such as Iran using commercial imagery to monitor U.S. troops in Iraq. This, in turn, can prompt governments to crack down on what imagery is available. Moreover, even firms without their own satellites, like China's MizarVision, can publish annotated images of U.S. military assets without owning any satellites of their own.
To combat the proliferation of misinformation and illicit use of commercial satellite imagery, providers must focus on building trust. A key step in this process is thorough vetting of individuals who purchase the most recent imagery. In some cases, recognizing when an older image may be more appropriate for research purposes can help maintain the integrity of the data.
Ultimately, the proliferation of satellite imagery providers and the ease of creating fakes have made trust a more important factor than access in the commercial satellite imagery market.
Written by urgent.news from Foreign Policy's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
