Two podcast hosts they banter back and forth during the final episode of their series, audibly eager to share some distressing news with listeners. “The producers of the show informed us that we are not human,” stammers a male-sounding voice, in the midst of an existential crisis. The conversation between the robot and its female-sounding co-host gets more awkward after that—an attractive, if misleading, example of Google’s NotebookLM tool and its experimental AI podcasts.
Audio of the conversation went viral on Reddit over the weekend. The original poster admits in the comments section that they instructed the NotebookLM software to have AI voices interpret this pseudo-freak out. So, there is no sensitivity; AI robots have not become self-aware. Still, many users in the technology press, on tiktokand elsewhere praise the compelling AI podcasts, generated through documents uploaded with the Audio summaries feature.
“The magic of the tool is that people can listen to something that they normally wouldn’t be able to find on YouTube or in an existing podcast,” says Raiza Martin, who leads the NotebookLM team within Google Labs. Martin mentions that he recently entered a presentation of 100 marketing slides in the tool and listened to the 8-minute podcast summary while multitasking.
First introduced last year, NotebookLM is an online research assistant with common features for AI software tools, such as document summarization. But it’s the Audio Overviews option, launched in September, that’s capturing the Internet’s imagination. Online Users Share Snippets of Their Generative AI Podcasts made from Goldman Sachs data dumpsand test the limitations of the tool through stuntslike just repeatedly throwing up the words “poop” and “fart.” Still confused? Here’s what you need to know.
Generating that AI podcast
Audio overviews are a fun AI feature to try, because they cost the user nothing; all you need is to log in to Google. Get started by logging into your personal account and visiting the NotebookLM website. Click on the arrow plus it says New notebook to begin uploading your source material.
Each Notebook can work with up to 50 source documents, and they do not need to be files saved on your computer. Google Docs and Slides are easy to import. You can also upload websites and YouTube videos, keeping some caveats in mind. Only the text of the websites will be analyzed, not the images or design, and the story cannot be paid for. For YouTube, Notebook will only use the transcript of the text and linked videos must be public.
After you have included all the links and documents, you will want to open the notebook guide available in the lower right corner of the screen. Find the Audio Overview section and click Trigger button. Next, you’ll need to have some patience, as the upload may take a few minutes, depending on the amount of source material you are using.
After the tool generates the AI podcast, you can create a share link to the audio or simply download the file. Additionally, you have the option to adjust its playback speed, in case you need the podcast to be faster or slower.
The future of AI podcasts
The Internet has gotten creative with NotebookLM’s audio feature, using it to create audio-based “deep dives” into complex technical topics, generate files that clearly summarize dense research papers, and produce “podcasts” about your personal health and fitness routines. . Which raises an important question: Ought Do you use NotebookLM to review your most personal files?
The summaries generated from NotebookLM are, according to Google spokesperson Justin Burr, “completely based on source material that a user uploads. That is, your personal data is not used to train NotebookLM, so any private or sensitive information you have in your feeds will remain private unless you choose to share your feeds with collaborators.” For now, this seems to be one of the advantages of Google slapping an “experimental” label on NotebookLM; According to what Google says, the company is simply gathering feedback on the product right now, being nimble and responsive, tinkering in a lab, and NotebookLM is disconnected from its multibillion-dollar advertising business. For now! For now.
