Remember when I colorized historical photos using AI? Well, Google just dropped Gemini 3 (codename: Nana Banana 2), and their image generation is absolutely wild.

Let's get the negative out of the way. This model costs $0.15 per use. 5x what Nano Banana v1 cost. Is it 5x better? No, and of course the cost will come down soon enough.

I took those same colorized portraits and asked Gemini 3 to create modern selfies with these historical icons. The results? Shockingly good. Like, unnervingly good.

Abe Lincoln

Ella Fitzgerald

Mark Twain

Dolly Parton

William Hurley

Frances Owens Thompson

These aren't just composites - Gemini 3 understood the lighting, perspective, and even the personality of each figure. Mark Twain looks like he's about to crack a joke. Dolly's got that signature warmth. Bill Hurley still looks like the most interesting guy at the bar.

The technology leap from the original Gemini models to this is massive. We're not talking about marginal improvements - this is a different category of capability.

What's fascinating is how natural these feel. There's no uncanny valley weirdness, no obvious AI tells. Just... selfies with people who've been dead for decades (or centuries).

Now my own face looks a little different but I didn't properly train the model on a ton of versions of my face. Just one blurry photo of me. And to boot it was an AI version of me to start with.

Time travel keeps getting easier.