EP35: Nano Banana Comes to Photoshop, ChatGPT Projects Now Free, Citation Best Practices for Nano Banana, Sora 2 Goes Social, Claude Writes MS Office Documents

Oct 27, 2025

Discover how Google’s Nano Banana integration with Photoshop is set to change the game for historical photo restoration. The co-hosts delve into the exciting news that ChatGPT Projects are now accessible for free, making it easier for genealogists to organize their research. They also provide essential tips on citing AI-modified images to maintain trust in historical accuracy. In RapidFire, hear about Sora 2's social media features, Claude's new document editing capabilities, and recent advancements in local language models.

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INSIGHT

Selective AI Edits Preserve Historical Detail

Integrating Nano Banana into Photoshop makes selective AI edits reliable by letting users mask exact areas to change.
This shifts generative AI from whole-image recreation toward precise editing that preserves surrounding historical detail.

ADVICE

Educate And Be Transparent With Edits

Educate yourself about how an AI image tool actually modifies pixels before sharing edits publicly.
Be radically transparent about any AI edits when you publish historical photos to maintain trust.

ANECDOTE

Projects Are The Unit Of Genealogical Work

Steve describes projects as the basic unit of his genealogical work and prefers building a project for serious tasks.
He moves multiple chats and files into a project to keep research organized and reproducible.

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Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little explore how Google's Nano Banana photo restoration tool will revolutionize image restoration by integrating with Adobe Photoshop. This move will greatly reduce unintended changes to historical photos when editing them with AI.

Next, they unpack OpenAI’s move to make ChatGPT Projects available to free-tier users, making research organization more accessible for genealogists.

This week's Tip of the Week provides essential guidance on the responsible use AI when editing historical photos using AI tools like Nano Banana, ensuring transparency and trust in historical photographs.

In RapidFire, they cover OpenAI's new Sora 2 AI-video social media platform, Claude's new ability to create and edit Microsoft Office files, memory features in Claude Projects, advancements in local language models, and how OpenAI's massive infrastructure deals are changing the AI landscape.

Timestamps:

In the News:

02:43 Adobe improves historical photo restoration by adding Nano Banana to Photoshop

09:34 ChatGPT Projects are Now Free

Tip of the Week:

13:36 Citations for AI-Restored Images Build Trust in AI-Modified Photos

RapidFire:

21:24 Sora 2 Goes Social

27:23 Claude Adds Microsoft Office Creation and Editing

34:26 Memory Features Come to Claude Projects

38:32 Apple and Amazon both create Local Language Model tools

44:47 OpenAI's Big Data Centre Deal with Oracle

Resource Links

OpenAI announces free access to ChatGPT Projects

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes

Engadget: OpenAI Rolls Out ChatGPT Projects to Free Users

https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-rolls-out-chatgpt-projects-to-free-users-215027802.html

Forbes: OpenAI Makes ChatGPT Projects Free

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2025/09/14/small-business-technology-roundup-microsoft-copilot-does-not-improve-productivity-and-openai-makes-chatgpt-project-free/

Responsible AI Photo Restoration

https://makingfamilyhistory.com/responsible-ai-photo-restoration/

Claude now has memory, but only for certain users

https://mashable.com/article/anthropic-claude-ai-now-has-memory-for-some-users

New Apple Intelligence features are available today

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/new-apple-intelligence-features-are-available-today/

Introducing Amazon Lens Live

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/search-image-amazon-lens-live-shopping-rufus

Amazon Lens Live Can Scan and Pull Up Matches

https://www.pcmag.com/news/spot-an-item-you-wish-to-buy-amazon-lens-live-can-scan-and-pull-up-matches

A Joint Statement from OpenAI and Microsoft About Their Changing Partnership

https://openai.com/index/joint-statement-from-openai-and-microsoft/

The Verge: OpenAI and Oracle Pen $300 Billion Compute Deal

https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/776170/oracle-openai-300-billion-contract-project-stargate

Reuters: OpenAI and Oracle Sign $300 Billion Computing Deal