Google Pulls the Plug on AI-Generated Recipe Images

Google has scrapped an experimental feature in AI Overviews (the AI-generated summary block that appears above search results) that generated AI-created images of dishes for recipe results. Google VP of Product Robby Stein confirmed the move on X (formerly Twitter): "This was a small experiment, and we're not running it now."

During the test, AI Overviews summarized the entire cooking process, start to finish, using an AI-drawn image. Inspired Taste, a recipe blog that spotted the feature, wrote on X: "This AI Overviews test is directly trying to replace content creators who buy the ingredients to shoot photos and video. We do all the work, and Google wants to simplify everything and replace us with AIOs like this."

The blogger also flagged another risk: a searcher might mistakenly assume that one of the sites linked in AI Overviews had actually created the illustration — a source of real confusion. A Google spokesperson clarified that the experiment had been announced back in July and stressed that it was distinct from the Nano Banana image-generation feature, which only activates on an explicit user request.

After the experiment was pulled, an Inspired Taste representative responded, "We are so happy that this experiment is no longer live." The episode once again highlighted a broader tension in Google's relationship with content creators and publishers: however "useful" an AI feature might seem, it risks overshadowing — or outright replacing — the work of the original content creator.