Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images
google enables its Gemini AI chatbot to connect to personal photos using the Nano Banana image generation tool.
Google announced Thursday that it will now allow users to connect Personal Intelligence, an AI feature that connects Google apps to get personalized answers, to the Gemini chatbot.
If you opt in, Nano Banana can create personalized images based on your private Google Photos, rather than manually uploading images to the chatbot.
Users can ask Gemini to “create a claymation image of me and my family enjoying our favorite activities,” and Gemini will automatically generate that specific image, the company said in an announcement in a blog post.
Nano Banana was a hit when it launched last year as people started uploading personal photos to create digital miniature figures of themselves. It was so popular that it overloaded the company’s infrastructure, forcing Google to impose temporary restrictions on its use to reduce the strain on custom-designed chips called tensor processing units.
It also propelled the Gemini app to number one. appleApp Store, dethroning OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Despite its popularity, the ability to connect directly to a user’s photo library represents a major step in linking AI chatbots with personal information.
Users will need to opt-in to Personal Intelligence to connect Google apps to Gemini and its Nano Banana feature, the company said. Personalized image creation will be rolled out to paid subscribers in the coming days.
The company announced Thursday that the Gemini app does not train models directly on users’ private Google Photo libraries, but does use “limited information such as Gemini’s specific prompts and the model’s responses.”
The company says Gemini can use information about people labeled in Google Photos.
“Whether you want results that look like they’re pulled straight from your own life, or that stretch your imagination a little further, now your inner circle can be the star of your images,” the company says.
The company says that since generating personalized images is an entirely new experience, Gemini “won’t necessarily select exactly the photos or details you had in mind on the first try.”
The combination of its products shows the company is trying to create a more personal connection between users and AI. This allows the user’s data and settings to shape not only the textual response but also the visual output.
Google launched Personal Intelligence in January. Nano Banana 2 was launched in February, and the company said it has improved speed, enhanced text rendering, and follows instructions more accurately.
