ChatGPT Images 2.0 Reclaims Number One, Meta Logs Employee Keystrokes, Google’s Research Agent

Today we’re covering the biggest AI stories of April 22nd, 2026. OpenAI dropped ChatGPT Images 2.0 — the first image model that thinks before it generates, searching the web for references and self-checking outputs before delivering results — immediately taking the number one spot on Arena AI’s leaderboard by a wide margin over Google’s Nano Banana, with Sam Altman calling it like going from GPT-3 to GPT-5 in one release. Meta is logging screenshots, keystrokes, and mouse activity on employees’ work laptops with no opt-out option, capturing real workflow data to train its AI agents — with the program starting a month before 8,000 employees are set to be laid off, giving the whole thing a deeply uncomfortable vibe. Plus, Google released Deep Research and Deep Research Max, two powerful research agents built on Gemini 3.1 Pro that can pull from the web, uploaded files, and paid data sources like Bloomberg and PitchBook — and a community workflow from a guy who built his own custom exercise tracker with Claude because no existing app tracked his specific routine the way he wanted.