Google on Thursday released an upgraded version of its previously popular AI image generation model Nano Banana, emphasizing its faster performance and aiming to attract more users to its AI tools for the search engine giant. The Alphabet-owned company said the model, called Nano Banana 2, will be integrated into a number of its products, including the Gemini app, AI mode and Lens features in search, and its AI video tool Flow.
The launch is the latest in a series of moves by Google that have pushed the company to the forefront of the AI race, helping it better compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT after a series of embarrassing initial losses. This series of success has pushed its stock price up 47% in the past six months.
Google launched the Nano Banana AI image editor in August last year, which quickly became popular on the Internet. In September, it brought 13 million new users to the Gemini application in just 4 days. As of mid-October, the tool has generated more than 5 billion images.
The tech giant later launched an upgraded Nano Banana Pro in November.
Google said that Nano Banana 2 relies on Gemini's faster and lower-cost Flash series models to achieve faster image generation and editing, while having stronger command understanding capabilities and clearer details.
In November, Google released the Gemini 3 model. Its success prompted competitor OpenAI to issue a "red alert" internally, pushing the team to accelerate research and development.
Gemini 3 has significantly increased user activity. As of the end of December, the number of monthly active users of the Gemini application has exceeded 750 million.