Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai views Nano Banana as a tool for realizing “latent creativity.” Pichai sat down with Google DeepMind’s Logan Kilpatrick to share insight into the newly launched Gemini 3, and the interview offers insight into how the tech mogul views generative image creation.
"The other thing [Nano Banana Pro] shows me is how much latent creativity there is in the world,” Pichai said. “People are going to express themselves, and we're giving them the tools to do it the way they're thinking it in their head…We've been constrained by the tools in front of people, you may not have realized it, but we are creating more and more expressive tools and they're more and more accessible to you know more and more people.”
The idea of “latent creativity” is one of creative abilities that are dormant or not yet realized. There’s a gap in the creative process from the idea to the final product that the artist traditionally fills with tools from paintbrushes to a camera. Pichai is calling Nanao Banana Pro a tool to get from that idea to the final product, and one that is accessible to more people.
Technology has, over time, made photography more accessible – a key example being the camera, which was originally only a tool for professional photographers and chemists but now resides in most pockets via a smartphone.
The accessibility of generative AI brings a wealth of ethical debates, and training an AI using unpaid work from artists who have struggled through the creative process is just one of them. Removing the difficulty of creating can also arguably remove the incentive to learn, grow, and adapt.
Google announced Nano Banana Pro last week, shortly after the launch of Gemini 3.
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