Google is rolling out two updates for AI imagery: an editing tool that makes photo changes easier and new transparency features to help people spot manipulated images.
At the center of Google’s creative push is Google Pics, a new AI image-editing tool powered by the company’s latest Nano Banana model. Now in closed testing, the tool works directly within Slides and Drive and is set to launch for AI Pro and Ultra subscribers this summer, with a business preview for Workspace users arriving alongside it.
Demos on Google’s website show the tool making quick edits such as moving or removing objects, changing colors, editing text while keeping the original font, adjusting a photo’s style, and expanding the background to “zoom out” an image.
At the same time, Google is giving more people access to tools that help figure out whether an image or video is real or AI-made, making it easier to tell what came from a camera and what didn’t.
SynthID, launched in 2023, is Google’s invisible watermarking system that adds hidden markers to images, videos, and audio created with its AI tools. The Gemini app can already detect SynthID-marked content, and verification is now available in Google Search, with Chrome support expected within weeks. Users can also access the feature through Google Lens and Search’s AI Mode. Google is also expanding the system beyond its own products, with Nvidia, OpenAI, Kakao, and ElevenLabs adopting the technology.
Google is widening support for the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), a standard that labels authentic photos at the moment they are captured. The system first appeared in the Pixel 10 camera app and will soon extend to video recorded on Pixel 8, 9, and 10 devices. Instagram is also preparing to support C2PA labels, while the Gemini app can now recognize them, with Google Search and Chrome expected to follow in the coming months.
These announcements were part of Google I/O 2026, where the company also revealed agentic upgrades to Google Search, new smartglasses, its answer to OpenClaw, and an AI-powered shopping cart manager.
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