Feb 26 (Reuters) - Google on Thursday unveiled a successor to its viral Nano Banana image generation model, touting faster performance as the search-engine behemoth pushes to attract more users to its AI tools.
The model, called Nano Banana 2, is being rolled out across products, including the Gemini app, AI Mode and Lens features on Search, and Flow, its AI-powered video tool, the Alphabet-owned company said.
The launch is Google's latest in a series of moves that have propelled the company to the forefront of the AI race, helping it better compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT after suffering a string of embarrassments initially. The success has fueled a 47% surge in its stock in the past six months.
Google rolled out the Nano Banana AI image editor in August, which quickly became a viral sensation, attracting 13 million first-time users to the Gemini app in just four days in September. By mid-October, it had generated more than 5 billion images.
The tech giant followed that with the release of the upgraded Nano Banana Pro in November.
Nano Banana 2 leans on Gemini's faster and cheaper models known as Flash, which allows quicker image generation and editing, Google said, adding that it also has better instruction-following capabilities and delivers sharper details.
In November, Google released its Gemini 3 AI model, whose success prompted rival OpenAI to issue an internal "code red" to push teams to accelerate development.
Gemini 3 has significantly boosted user engagement, helping the Gemini app capture more than 750 million monthly active users at the end of December.
(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)
