Google AI Studio has suddenly dropped a weekend hackathon—Nano Banana Global Hackathon. The requirement is simple: use their latest SOTA image model, Gemini-2.5-flash-image, to create something that makes people go 'wow.'

The timing is tight, starting at 5 PM Pacific Time on September 5. The list of partners includes logos from ElevenLabs and FAL. There are two ways to participate:

1. Online submissions via Kaggle (link shortened)

2. An in-person session in San Francisco (only on September 6), hosted by Cerebral Valley

Interestingly, there's a third note: all prizes are non-monetary. It’s unclear whether winners will receive custom banana models or Google cafeteria vouchers.

The comments section already has someone who submitted early (@MakerThrive), while others are concerned about the strict open-source terms (@MakeLikeAI). The most practical advice comes from @BigBrother_Jane: use PromptArtist.io to optimize your prompts—though the tool itself has a three-tier paid subscription waiting to cash in.

If you plan to compete, think carefully about your focus: showcasing the model's image capabilities or the overall 'wow' factor of your product design. After all, the 'flash-image' suffix hints at the technical emphasis.

(Image retained: Prompt Artist website screenshot, showing its tiered pricing model: from Artist to Pro to Epic modes, corresponding to $5/$15/$45 monthly fees.)

Additional notes:

- It’s unclear whether the API is free

- Existing applications (e.g., @xiyan’s iso3d.com) can also participate

- ElevenLabs API key storage issues could be a technical minefield