Google’s AI model is getting really good at spoofing phone photos

I’m starting to understand where Google’s visual AI model gets its name, because after playing around with it for a couple of days, that’s how I’d sum it up: bananas. The images it generates are so realistic it’s bananas. I feel like I’m going bananas after staring at them for too long. And if I had to pinpoint one reason why Nano Banana Pro’s images look so much more realistic than the AI slop that came before them, it’s this: They look like photos taken with a phone camera.

Sure, the tells are there if you look for them. Take the image at the top of this article of the (not real!) couple on the city sidewalk. The streetlight in the background doesn’t look quite right to me, and some of the building facades — especially farther into the background — look a little strange and blocky. But if I was just scrolling past this photo on social media? No way I’d clock it as AI. The subjects look realistic, but I think the fact that the image doesn’t look too…