A class action lawsuit filed September 4, 2026, alleges Meta illegally harvested users' Facebook and Instagram photos to train its AI image-generation models and to build an unreleased face recognition feature called NameTag.
Google's Gemini artificial intelligence assistant has crossed 1 billion monthly active users, making it the fastest-growing product in the company's history. The milestone comes as 63% of users engage with the voice feature and the platform generates over 150 million images daily.
xAI launched Imagine Image 2.0 on August 7, 2026, introducing professional editing tools including magic wand selection, background removal, multi-reference inputs, and templates. The model ranks second in Arena benchmarks, trailing only OpenAI's GPT-Image-2.
Children in the United Kingdom have reported a dramatic increase in explicit deepfake images created using their likenesses, with 420 cases reported in a six-month period through the Report Remove service. Safety watchdogs warn that AI technology is making such content increasingly easy to produce, raising concerns about cyberbullying in schools.
Google rolled back its new AI feature that allowed users to generate artificial intelligence images superimposed on satellite maps after BBC Verify reported it could create realistic deepfakes of bombings, riots, and destruction. The feature used Google's Nano Banana 2 model.
Meta introduced Content Seal, an invisible watermarking system for AI-generated images from its Muse models, following pressure from its Oversight Board to combat deceptive AI content. Early tests reveal significant detection gaps, with critics questioning why Meta didn't adopt Google's existing SynthID technology instead.
Filed March 2026 in the Northern District of California, this class action against xAI Corp. and Stability AI alleges Grok generated thousands of CSAM images from real photos of minor plaintiffs; an amended complaint added two new plaintiffs and accused xAI of obstructing law enforcement through deficient NCMEC reporting.
Meta unveiled multiple AI products in July 2026, including the Muse Spark 1.1 coding model for developers, a new AI image generator integrated into Instagram and chatbot services, and its first paid AI model tier. The releases triggered privacy backlash as Instagram began automatically allowing users' public posts to be used for AI training unless they opt out.
Meta launched Muse Image, its first in-house AI image generation model developed under Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang's Meta Superintelligence Lab. The model will be integrated into Meta AI chatbot, Instagram, WhatsApp, and the company's Advantage+ advertising tools.
Google released two new generative AI models: Nano Banana 2 Lite (also called Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite), which generates images in 4 seconds at $0.034 per image, and Gemini Omni Flash, which brings video generation and editing via text prompts to API for the first time. The models target developers and enterprise users seeking cost-efficient, high-volume media workflows.
AI image generation company Midjourney has announced Midjourney Medical, a new venture to develop full-body scanners that can map internal anatomy in 60 seconds, along with medical spa facilities where patients would receive scans.
Microsoft's MAI division released three new foundation models: MAI-Transcribe-1 (speech-to-text in 25 languages, 2.5x faster than Azure Fast), MAI-Voice-1 (audio generation), and an image generation model. The transcription model costs $0.36 per audio hour.
