EdTechSR Episode 365: Nano Banana Era

Welcome to episode 365 (“Nano Banana Pro Era”) of the EdTech Situation Room from December 29, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) discuss the rapid evolution of generative AI, beginning with Jason’s recent travel to Japan where tools like NotebookLM and Gemini assisted with navigation and cultural translation. The hosts dive deep into the capabilities of Nano Banana Pro (Google’s latest Gemini model), comparing its superior image generation and iteration controls to OpenAI’s offerings. The conversation also covers the landmark licensing agreement between Disney and OpenAI to bring iconic characters to the Sora video platform, the ethical “dumpster fire” of hyper-realistic deepfakes, and eight bold AI predictions for 2026—including the rise of world models and an “offline renaissance”. Geeks of the Week include Gemini Desk and a new Substack series on AI storytelling. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.

🔗 Links We Discussed

* The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach landmark agreement to bring beloved characters from across Disney’s brands to Sora (OpenAI, 11 Dec 2025)

* ChatGPT’s Latest AI Image Generator Is Its Best Yet, But Nano Banana Pro Is Still Better (PC Mag, 28 Dec 2025)

* The Ethics of AI Imagery: Nano Banana and the New Frontier of Digital Reality (Genevieve Smith-Nunes via Substack; 30 August 2025)

* AI in 2026 | 8 Predictions About What’s Coming (Sinead Novell; 18 December 2025)

* Wobbling Jets of 3I/ATLAS Based on New Hubble Telescope Images from December 12 and 27, 2025 (Medium of Avi Loeb, 27 Dec 2025)

* 3I/ATLAS Deep Fake Videos (Blog of Wes Fryer, 8 Dec 2025)

* Jason’s Geek of the Week: Gemini Desk

* Wes’ Geek of the Week: Stories About AI - December 2025

🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss

* Google’s Year in Review: 8 Research Breakthroughs in 2025 (Google Blog, 23 Dec 2025)

* Nano Banana Pro Review: Is Google’s AI Image Generator Too Good? (CNet, 7 Dec 2025)

* Create with unlimited generations using Google Gemini 3 (Nano Banana Pro) in Adobe Firefly (Adobe Blog, 20 Nov 2025)

* Nano Banana is wild in NotebookLM!!!

* Google’s New Image Tool Looks Too Real. Here’s Why That’s A Problem (The Blueprint Brief; 8 December 2025)

* Nano Banana Content Blocked (John Negoita via Medium; 24 September 2025)

* Introducing GPT-5.2: OpenAI Launches ‘Garlic’ Series (OpenAI, 11 Dec 2025)

* How AI coding agents work—and what to remember if you use them (ArsTechnica, 24 Dec 2025)

* Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work (Simon Willison’s Weblog, 18 Dec 2025)

* Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivity (Cornell University, 12 Jul 2025)

* AI and Social Media Literacy Essential for Safe Ecosystem (Bernama, 27 Dec 2025)

* Rainbow Six Siege is under siege by hackers, Ubisoft forced to take all servers offline — players randomly received billions of credits, ultra-exclusive skins, and bans or unbans (Tom’s Hardware, 27 Dec 2025)

* You may soon be able to change your Gmail address (TechCrunch, 28 Dec 2025)

* “Yo what?” LimeWire re-emerges in online rush to share pulled “60 Minutes” segment (ArsTechnica, 23 Dec 2025)

* FCC’s import ban on the best new drones starts today (ArsTechnica, 23 Dec 2025)

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