Google’s native multimodal AI image generation in Gemini 2.0 Flash impresses with fast edits, style transfers

Google’s latest open source AI model Gemma 3 isn’t the only big news from the Alphabet subsidiary today.

No, in fact, the spotlight may have been stolen by Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash with native image generation, a new experimental model available for free to users of Google AI Studio and to developers through Google’s Gemini API.

It marks the first time a major U.S. tech company has shipped multimodal image generation directly within a model to consumers. Most other AI image generation tools were diffusion models (image specific ones) hooked up to large language models (LLMs), requiring a bit of interpretation between two models to derive an image that the user asked for in a text prompt. This was the case both for Google’s previous Gemini LLMs connected to its Imagen diffusion models, and OpenAI’s previous (and still, as far as know) current setup of connecting ChatGPT and various underlying LLMs to its DALL-E 3 diffusion model.

By contrast, Gemini 2.0 Flash can generate images natively within the same model that the user types text prompts into, theoretically allowing for greater accuracy and more capabilities — and the early indications are this is entirely true.

Gemini 2.0 Flash, first unveiled in December 2024 but without the native image generation capability switched on for users, integrates multimodal input, reasoning, and natural language understanding to generate images alongside text.

The newly available experimental version, gemini-2.0-flash-exp, enables developers to create illustrations, refine images through conversation, and generate detailed visuals based on world knowledge.

How Gemini 2.0 flash enhances AI-generated images

In a developer-facing blog post published earlier today, Google highlights several key capabilities of Gemini 2.0 Flash’s native image generation:

• Text and Image Storytelling: Developers can use Gemini 2.0 Flash to generate illustrated stories while maintaining consistency in characters and settings. The model also responds to feedback, allowing users to adjust the story or change the art style.

• Conversational Image Editing: The AI supports multi-turn editing, meaning users can iteratively refine an image by providing instructions through natural language prompts. This feature enables real-time collaboration and creative exploration.

• World Knowledge-Based Image Generation: Unlike many other image generation models, Gemini 2.0 Flash leverages broader reasoning capabilities to produce more contextually relevant images. For instance, it can illustrate recipes with detailed visuals that align with real-world ingredients and cooking methods.

• Improved Text Rendering: Many AI image models struggle to accurately generate legible text within images, often producing misspellings or distorted characters. Google reports that Gemini 2.0 Flash outperforms leading competitors in text rendering, making it particularly useful for advertisements, social media posts, and invitations.

Initial examples show incredible potential and promise

Googlers and some AI power users to X to share examples of the new image generation and editing capabilities offered through Gemini 2.0 Flash experimental, and they were undoubtedly impressive.

AI and tech educator Paul Couvert pointed out that “You can basically edit any image in natural language [fire emoji[. Not only the ones you generate with Gemini 2.0 Flash but also existing ones,” showing how he uploaded photos and altered them using only text prompts.

Users @apolinario and @fofr showed how you could upload a headshot and modify it into totally different takes with new props like a bowl of spaghetti, or change the direction the subject was looking in while preserving their likeness with incredible accuracy, or even zoom out and generate a full body image based on nothing other than a headshot.

Google DeepMind researcher Robert Riachi showcased how the model can generate images in a pixel-art style and then create new ones in the same style based on text prompts.

AI news account TestingCatalog News reported on the rollout of Gemini 2.0 Flash Experimental’s multimodal capabilities, noting that Google is the first major lab to deploy this feature.

User @Angaisb_ aka “Angel” showed in a compelling example how a prompt to “add chocolate drizzle” modified an existing image of croissants in seconds — revealing Gemini 2.0 Flash’s fast and accurate image editing capabilities via simply chatting back and forth with the model.

YouTuber Theoretically Media pointed out that this incremental image editing without full regeneration is something the AI industry has long anticipated, demonstrating how it was easy to ask Gemini 2.0 Flash to edit an image to raise a character’s arm while preserving the entire rest of the image.

Former Googler turned AI YouTuber Bilawal Sidhu showed how the model colorizes black-and-white images, hinting at potential historical restoration or creative enhancement applications.

These early reactions suggest that developers and AI enthusiasts see Gemini 2.0 Flash as a highly flexible tool for iterative design, creative storytelling, and AI-assisted visual editing.

The swift rollout also contrasts with OpenAI’s GPT-4o, which previewed native image generation capabilities in May 2024 — nearly a year ago — but has yet to release the feature publicly—allowing Google to seize an opportunity to lead in multimodal AI deployment.

As user @chatgpt21 aka “Chris” pointed out on X, OpenAI has in this case “los[t] the year + lead” it had on this capability for unknown reasons. The user invited anyone from OpenAI to comment on why.

My own tests revealed some limitations with the aspect ratio size — it seemed stuck in 1:1 for me, despite asking in text to modify it — but it was able to switch the direction of characters in an image within seconds.

While much of the early discussion around Gemini 2.0 Flash’s native image generation has focused on individual users and creative applications, its implications for enterprise teams, developers, and software architects are significant.

AI-Powered Design and Marketing at Scale: For marketing teams and content creators, Gemini 2.0 Flash could serve as a cost-efficient alternative to traditional graphic design workflows, automating the creation of branded content, advertisements, and social media visuals. Since it supports text rendering within images, it could streamline ad creation, packaging design, and promotional graphics, reducing the reliance on manual editing.

Enhanced Developer Tools and AI Workflows: For CTOs, CIOs, and software engineers, native image generation could simplify AI integration into applications and services. By combining text and image outputs in a single model, Gemini 2.0 Flash allows developers to build:

• AI-powered design assistants that generate UI/UX mockups or app assets.
• Automated documentation tools that illustrate concepts in real-time.
• Dynamic, AI-driven storytelling platforms for media and education.

Since the model also supports conversational image editing, teams could develop AI-driven interfaces where users refine designs through natural dialogue, lowering the barrier to entry for non-technical users.

New Possibilities for AI-Driven Productivity Software: For enterprise teams building AI-powered productivity tools, Gemini 2.0 Flash could support applications like:

• Automated presentation generation with AI-created slides and visuals.
• Legal and business document annotation with AI-generated infographics.
• E-commerce visualization, dynamically generating product mockups based on descriptions.

How to deploy and experiment with this capability

Developers can start testing Gemini 2.0 Flash’s image generation capabilities using the Gemini API. Google provides a sample API request to demonstrate how developers can generate illustrated stories with text and images in a single response:

from google import genai  
from google.genai import types  

client = genai.Client(api_key="GEMINI_API_KEY")  

response = client.models.generate_content(  
    model="gemini-2.0-flash-exp",  
    contents=(  
        "Generate a story about a cute baby turtle in a 3D digital art style. "  
        "For each scene, generate an image."  
    ),  
    config=types.GenerateContentConfig(  
        response_modalities=["Text", "Image"]  
    ),  
)

By simplifying AI-powered image generation, Gemini 2.0 Flash offers developers new ways to create illustrated content, design AI-assisted applications, and experiment with visual storytelling.