We set out to map the world — and accidentally built humanity’s time machine. Now, AI is turning it into our planetary crystal ball. 🌎→🔮

Google Earth saved 4,000 lives during Hurricane Katrina, reunited lost families, and discovered forests science didn’t even know existed. But the real story starts with an $800/year spy tool watching a war unfold in 2003. Over 20 years, this mapping software evolved into something unprecedented: a living, breathing digital twin of Earth that lets anyone witness decades of change. Now with AI, it’s becoming a planetary prediction engine. This is that untold journey from digital mirror to crystal ball.

Special thanks to:
– Rebecca Moore, Former Director, Google Earth
– Matt Hancher, Director of Engineering, Google Earth
– The Google Geo team

VIDEO CHAPTERS
00:00 Google Earth Origin Story
01:23 Sci-fi Spy Tech to Public Gift
06:22 Katrina – First Real‑World Test
09:47 Building a 3D Mirror World
15:24 Crowdsourcing Truth: Earth as Evidence
21:35 Living Dashboard for the Planet
27:58 The Mirror Becomes a Crystal Ball

My frontier maps mailing list: https://spatialintelligence.ai
Connect with me on X/Twitter: https://x.com/bilawalsidhu
Everywhere else here: https://bilawal.ai
Business inquiries: team@metaversity.us

Bio:
Bilawal Sidhu is a creator, engineer, and product builder obsessed with blending reality and imagination using art and science. He’s also the technology curator for TED Talks, and a scout for Andreessen Horowitz. With more than a decade of experience in the tech industry, he spent six years as a product manager at Google, where he worked on spatial computing and 3D maps. His work has been featured in major publications including Bloomberg, Forbes, BBC, CNBC, and Fortune, among others. Bilawal’s journey into computer graphics began at 11, when he fell in love with seamlessly blending 3D into real life footage. Since then, he’s captivated over 1.5M subscribers, garnering more than 500M+ views across platforms. When he’s not working, you can find Bilawal expanding his collection of electric guitars.

TED: https://www.ted.com/speakers/bilawal_sidhu

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