Google has released Nano Banana 2.1, an image generation and editing model that replaces Nano Banana 2 and cuts prices by roughly half. Matthias Bastian reports for The Decoder that the new model is based on Gemini 3.6 Flash and is rolling out across Google’s consumer and business AI products. Google says Nano Banana 2.1 …
Tencent has released Hy Image 3.5 Preview, an image-generation API that lets developers refine pictures through a continuing conversation. The service costs $0.024 per generated image and supports text prompts, reference images, and multi-turn editing. Ryan Merket reports for RuntimeWire that Tencent is positioning the model for creative software where users make several revisions to …
Alibaba’s Qwen has released Qwen-Image-2.1, an open-weight image-generation and editing model with a 7 billion parameter visual component. Qwen announces in an official blog post that the model combines text-to-image generation, image editing, and native transparency support in one system. The release targets a growing demand for image models that can do more than create …
OpenAI has released ChatGPT Images 2.5, an updated image generation and editing system that the company says improves speed, subject fidelity, and control over detailed revisions. The rollout includes new creative tools in ChatGPT, such as a drawing feature called Sketch, image comments, and templates for common formats including posters and product images. According to …
World Labs has unveiled Atlas, a multimodal AI model designed to generate, reconstruct, and simulate scenes in three dimensions. The World Labs Team announces Atlas in an official blog post, describing it as a system that works with text, images, video, camera positions, and depth data in a shared spatial context. The company says Atlas …
Google is rolling out Google Pics, a new AI-powered image generation and editing suite for Google Workspace. Jess Weatherbed reports for The Verge that the service combines Gemini with Google’s Nano Banana image model and is designed for business graphics such as marketing materials, presentations, and product visuals. Google Pics is available as a standalone …
Google DeepMind is testing Backstory, an AI-supported tool designed to help journalists and fact-checkers investigate misleading, manipulated and AI-generated images. Andrew Deck writes for Nieman Lab that the experimental service is available to selected journalists, open-source investigators, librarians and media literacy researchers through Google’s Trusted Testers Program. Users upload an image and ask a basic …
Google is introducing a setting that lets users remove visible watermarks from AI generated images, videos and music created in Gemini and Flow. Emma Roth reports for The Verge that the option controls the small sparkle symbol shown in the lower right corner of media produced with Google’s Nano Banana and Omni models. Users can …
The Xiaomi 17 Ultra appears to have applied Moon enhancement software to photographs of a solar eclipse, adding crater-like surface details to the Sun. The incident highlights how AI image processing can produce convincing but inaccurate results when a camera system misidentifies its subject. Omar Belkaab reports for Frandroid that the problem emerged during tests …
Google’s SynthID watermark can remain detectable after severe image compression, resizing and screenshots, but it cannot reliably distinguish authentic media from the growing volume of unlabeled AI content. Ryan Whitwam writes for Ars Technica that tests of images generated and edited with Google AI found SynthID still detectable after 300 rounds of simulated sharing and …