On September 11, 2025, ByteDance announced the release of the Seedream 4.0 model for image generation and editing, confirming its superiority over Google's "Nano Banana" model in terms of stimulus commitment, compatibility accuracy, and aesthetics. The model supports up to 4K image production along with text-based or reference image editing capabilities - making it competitive against advanced visual models such as DeepMind's. The move is part of ByteDance's strategy to expand its visual AI portfolio, while relying on internal evaluation metrics, the details of which have yet to be revealed, leaving ambiguity about the measurement criteria.
ByteDance (the tech company that owns TikTok) launches Seedream 4.0 photo model
