Being Adobe is a bad day.
Google says it's behind the virus image editor that generates many online buzzes. We wrote about it, Redditors rave about it, and now it's here for everyone to try.
On Tuesday, the company announced that Google DeepMind had created the model, and integrated it into the Gemini app and website for anyone to use it. It was tested under the name “Nano Banana”, but the model is actually named Gemini 2.5 Flash.
Google is testing a new model from Lmarena, a public site that crowdsources anonymous feedback on the quality of its AI models. It appeared as a nano banana, but users quickly speculated that Google was behind it.
According to Google, a particular strength of the Gemini 2.5 Flash is to keep people and animals portraits the same from image to image. Based on previous feedback, Google claims that users prefer newer models over OpenAI and other rivals based on their ELO scores. This is a way to calculate the relative skill level of a generative model.
Business Insider has been testing the models for several days and has found it to be generally better than rival tools. It's not perfect – sometimes you have trouble replicating your face when combining two different photos, but it's especially strong at tweaking your existing photos a bit.
In the example below, I added a glass to the author's photo in this article and asked to change the color of my t-shirt to red. Some models have correct glasses and colours, but Google was the only one that retains the striped pattern of the t-shirt. It was also one of the more sharp results.
Hugh Langley in Business Insider Reporter gets edits for Gemini. Google Gemini/Business Insider
It can pose a serious threat to existing editing tools, especially program suites such as Adobe's Photoshop. Google told Business Insider that it views the Gemini 2.5 Flash as a tool for both consumers and professionals. It also provides access to both paying and non-payment Gemini users.
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Adobe said on Tuesday that new Google models will be available immediately on Adobe Firefly and Adobe Express.
Asked why users want to use Adobe's tools instead of going directly to Google, Adobe told Business Insider that it offers all these models in one place so that users don't have to bounce across different platforms. The spokesman later added that Adobe also allows creators to run creations between different Adobe apps.
Now it does little to ease investors' concerns. Adobe's stock has fallen 35% over the past year. This has in part appealed to analysts' fears about the impact of AI on these traditional tools.
Test the new Gemini model of Google's native apps to see if the results are different.
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