AI Applied: Covering AI News, Interviews and Tools - ChatGPT, Midjourney, Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic Google Launches Nano Banana 2 with Logan Kilpatrick
Feb 26, 2026
Logan Kilpatrick, a Google product and engineering leader behind Nano Banana and Gemini work. He breaks down Nano Banana 2’s speed, 4K and aspect-ratio boosts, and image search-powered generation. Conversation covers virtual try-on and startup opportunities, watermarking and safety tradeoffs, and how faster models shape AI coding and product rollouts.
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Nano Banana 2 Delivers Faster Higher Quality Image Creation
- Nano Banana 2 is a major step up in image generation and editing with speed, quality, and cost improvements over the Pro model.
- It adds new aspect ratios, resolution choices up to 4K, and image search integration that can fetch current objects (like the latest Pixel) for seamless composites.
Image Search Lets Models Include Real World Items
- Nano Banana Pro added Google Search support to pull live facts into images, and Nano Banana 2 extends this with image search to insert up-to-date object images.
- Example: take a desk photo and ask the model to add the newest Google Pixel; the model uses search to find and composite that phone into the generated image.
Host Demonstrates Photo Edits Preserving Exact Faces
- Jaeden tested Gemini image edits and Nano Banana outputs, showing highly accurate thermostat and face-preserving edits.
- He compared older Gemini outputs to Nano Banana 2 and highlighted near-identical faces when placing him in a suit next to a cow.