Google Revamps 25-Year-Old Images, Adds Nano Banana AI Generation to Search

Q: Google’s new AI can generate any image instantly, but who legally owns the final creation?

In most cases, no one automatically owns the copyright to a purely AI-generated image. Under current U.S. law, copyright requires human authorship, and courts and the U.S. Copyright Office have repeatedly said that an image created entirely by AI is not copyrightable. That means if Google’s new Search tool generates an image from a prompt with little more than user instructions, the final image likely has no copyright owner in the traditional sense. Google’s own terms for generative AI services generally say Google does not claim ownership of the output, but that does not mean the user receives a valid copyright if the work lacks enough human creative input. A user may have rights only where there is meaningful human authorship. That can include substantial editing, combining AI output into a larger original work, or contributing protectable elements through selection, arrangement, or transformation. U.S. guidance has made clear that prompts alone usually are not enough. So the practical answer is split: contractually, Google may let the user use the image; legally, copyright ownership depends on how much of the final expression came from a human. If the image is mostly machine-made, it is likely uncopyrightable. If a person materially shapes or revises it, that person may own only the human-created parts. Separate from ownership, users still face legal risk if an output infringes someone else’s copyright, trademark, or publicity rights.

3 articles · Updated · Engadget · Jul 14

Google is rolling out a redesigned Google Images experience on desktop in the U.S. in English, with real-time results tailored to users' interests as the product marks its 25th anniversary.
The update also reshapes saving and browsing: saved images now surface as tabs above the gallery, and the Saved page splits into collections and all image results; saving still requires a logged-in Google account.
In the coming weeks, Search will also let users generate images from text prompts inside AI Overviews using Google's Nano Banana model, without leaving the results page.
That image-generation feature will be available in regions that already support AI image creation, extending Google's push to handle visual queries and creation directly inside Search.
Google tied the anniversary update to the product's origin story, saying demand to see Jennifer Lopez's green Versace dress after the 2000 Grammys helped spur the launch of Google Images in July 2001.