Since the launch of its newest AI image generator in August, Google’s image editing model known as Nano Banana has been behind a number of viral trends – enough so that the AI has now generated 5 billion images, despite being less than two months old.
In a series of announcements this week, Google said that Nano Banana is coming to Google Search and NotebookLM, and that the AI would be coming to Google Photos “in the coming weeks ahead.”
But amid the announcement, Google shared that Nano Banana had already generated 5 billion images. That’s a surprising number considering that the AI image model was only announced on August 26.
To put that in perspective, data hints smartphones take 5 billion images per day; Google’s new image AI has done that in less than two months. Adobe Firefly generated 24 billion images in its first 16 months, which averages out to 1.5 billion images per month.
Google has been gradually rolling out the photo-generator AI to more platforms since its announcement in August. The AI generator has even launched in a beta version of Photoshop.
Now, Google says the AI is coming to Google Search – but no, the feature built into Search doesn’t appear to be a way to edit other people’s copyrighted images. Instead, the screenshots that Google shared appear to focus on adding the tool to Google Lens searches, the company’s camera-based search tool that allows users to search using a photo. Google says that users will be able to snap a photo with Lens, or upload an existing one, and edit it with AI.
Google also says the latest AI photo model will also be heading to Google Photos in the coming weeks and that users should keep their eyes “peeled” for the update.
Nano Banana is Google’s latest generative AI image model. While Nano Banana’s technical name is Gemini 2.5 Flash, the AI tool has become better known by the code name that Google gave it during development.
While there are a number of image-based generative AI models, Nano Banana is known for a few distinguishing features, including the ability to generate an image of a person that still looks like the person in the original reference photo.
Google’s rollout of Nano Banana to Search began on October 13 and is accessible inside the Google app for Android and iOS by looking for the banana icon in the Create mode.
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