Google NotebookLM: Expanding sources, adding audio features

Google’s NotebookLM Allows you to experiment with an AI chat system focused on the sources you choose. This tool leverages Google Gemini, a highly capable AI system, to not only generate chat responses based on your sources but also help you organize and explore content within your sources.

For example, you can add multiple lines to a notebook, then use NotebookLM to create a customized study guide based on a specific selection of those notes.

In September 2024, NotebookLM added the option to create audio overviews, which create podcast-style conversations taken from your sources. This combination of AI tools, including chat and notes-related features, makes NotebookLM one of the most effective tools for exploring ideas found in a focused set of sources.

NotebookLM users must:

• You must be at least 18 years of age.
• Have a Google account.
• Stay in one of these 180 area Where Gemini API is available.

Using NotebookLM is free, and Google does not use your data to train NotebookLM. However, NotebookLM is experimental and, like most AI services, can sometimes provide incorrect information. The five core capabilities of Google’s NotebookLM – as of September 2024 – are described below. To get started, visit NotebookLM and sign in with a Google account.

SEE: Google Chrome: Security and UI tips you need to know (TechRepublic Premium)

How do you use Google’s NotebookLM?

While Google Notebook emphasizes LM’s chat and other AI-powered features, the ability to work with notes alongside sources can also be useful. It also has the ability to create audio overviews, which provides a different way to process your content.

Add Source

After creating and naming a new notebook, you can add up to 50 sources. These sources can include a variety of content, including Google Docs, Google Slides, text, PDFs, and web links. However, each source must be no longer than 500,000 words. For reference, this is roughly equal to the combined word count of JRR Tolkein’s three “Lord of the Rings” books. So, file length probably won’t be a concern for most business or school uses.

Additionally, NotebookLM also includes image understanding, which means it can process and analyze information in the images included in your sources.

Access the source summary

Choose any source from the list on the left, and NotebookLM will display two AI-generated sections — a summary and main topics — above the source content. The summary attempts to capture the main concepts of the source in several sentences. In contrast, main topics can be viewed as auto-generated prompts: Choose a main topic from the list, and NotebookLM starts a new chat. For example, clicking on the main topic of “Collaborative Tools” starts a chat with the prompt “Discuss Collaborative Tools.”

Talk to your sources

NotebookLM generates chat responses based on your sources, making it an effective tool for examining a set of documents, slides, and links. Ask a question, and the generated response can include information from your sources, with numbered citations in the response that link directly to the relevant content.

Not sure what to ask? Choose any of the suggested prompts that appear above the prompt box. Want to edit the response for later use? Select the Copy button in the lower left, then paste the response into another standard text field – but please note that quotes are left out when you copy-paste a response this way. You can also save a response to a note.

make notes

There are two ways to add notes to NotebookLM:

• To manually create a new note, select the “Add Note” icon and then add your text. Once saved, you can later select and edit the title and content of any manually created note.
• To save any AI generated chat response to a note, select the “Save to Note” button in the bottom corner of the chat response. Notes created from AI chat responses can be selected and viewed later, but the system will not allow you to edit the generated content in the note.

Creating and managing notes alongside source material provides a capability that many students, writers, and researchers may find helpful. Select the checkbox in the upper-right corner of one or more notes, and NotebookLM displays text-buttons with actions to be performed on the notes.

Note action buttons can perform the following functions:

• Write a summary of the selected notes.
• Suggest related ideas.
• Create a study guide.
• Create an outline.
• Combine selected notes into a single note.

Create guides – including audio!

The Notebook Guide option – located in the lower-right area of ​​the display – provides access to a summary of all sources, as well as options to create multiple types of documents or a notebook. Audio Overview of your sources. The types of documents that NotebookLM can create are the same as those for note actions: FAQ, study guide, table of contents, timeline, and briefing documents. When you select one of these, the system creates a new note that contains the type of content requested.

Select the “Audio overview” option for the system to create a podcast-style discussion with simulated voices about your content. It may take some time for the overview to be ready. After requesting it, you can close your browser and continue with other tasks. Even when an audio overview is ready, the generated audio takes a while to load. The generated audio does an impressive job of depicting the host talking about your content.

The audio overview focuses on select parts of your content. Think of it as a small sampling of your sources rather than comprehensive coverage of every detail. For example, in one of my tests involving four documents and two presentations, the generated audio overview lasted over nine minutes. The conversation captured at least three major components of the content, but also covered some smaller details that a human editor would likely have missed.