A month ago, we reported that Google said it would be rolling out AI-generated images within AI Overviews in Google Search. Well, it seems Google is starting to roll out those AI-generated images in AI Overviews this week. (Update: Google has confirmed this as a small experiment and has decided to stop testing this the following Monday.)
Google wrote then, "To help bring those unique ideas to life, we’re bringing image generation directly into AI Overviews in Search."
The folks at Inspired Taste posted on X an example of Google showing AI-generated images for recipe results. And as we expected, they are not happy about it. He said this is trying to "replace creators who buy groceries for testing, photography, and filming recipe videos."
Here is what it looks like closed:
Here is what it looks like opened:
Inspired Taste wrote:
We were updating our spaghetti squash recipe today and while searching for ourselves in Google we were shown an AIO with AI step cartoons.We specifically have an entire section in our article and recipe video demonstrating how to safety cut the squash (which can be dangerous), add a ton more flavor with herbs, and show how you can cook your squash much faster in the microwave.
This AIO is directly trying to replace creators who buy groceries for testing, photography, and filming recipe videos. We also have conversations with our visitors who have questions. We are doing all of the work and Google is directly trying to over simplify everything and replace us with AIOs like this.
There is also risk that a searcher might think that one of the websites cited in the AIO did the illustrations. It is very confusing and extremely oversimplified.
No shock here that creators are not a fan of this...
This is horrible @rmstein and @rajanpatel. This can't be the direction AIOs and AI Mode take moving forward. cc @rustybrick @glenngabe pic.twitter.com/AnVqlmrsHg
— Inspired Taste (@inspiredtaste) August 13, 2026
Forum discussion at X.
Update: Google confirmed this was a small experiment and they stopped it. Robby Stein from Google told us, "This was a small experiment we're no longer running."
This was a small experiment we're no longer running. FYI this is not the Nano Banana feature we announced in July, which only triggers when users explicitly ask to generate an image
— Robby Stein (@rmstein) August 17, 2026
I updated the time stamp on this story from Friday morning, August 14th to Monday afternoon, August 17th.
