Probably the greatest components of my job is that I get to talk with business people who, like me, eat and breathe AI instruments. After assembly with yet another (non-Google-affiliated) media particular person final week who informed me how a lot they cherished NotebookLM, I made a decision to offer it an actual attempt.
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Though I’ve tried a number of NotebookLM options for the location earlier than and have been impressed, discovering a method to incorporate NotebookLM into my workflow appeared daunting — particularly as a result of each time I attempted undertaking administration instruments resembling Notion or Asana, I used to be immediately overwhelmed and by no means caught with them.
Nevertheless, for this text, I dedicated to the bit, moved a few of my on a regular basis content material over, and here’s what my expertise was like (and a few methods to get essentially the most out of it).
- Simple to arrange your recordsdata
Google describes NotebookLM as a “Your Personalized AI Research Assistant,” and whereas the title could also be true, it’s a little imprecise. Virtually talking, NotebookLM is a digital info supervisor in which you’ll be able to add your individual recordsdata and manage them into “notebooks.”
These notebooks then have many AI-powered options, resembling the power to generate a Examine information, a briefing doc, an FAQ, a Timeline, and even an AI podcast. I’ll get into that quickly. Proper now, let’s discuss its most underrated function: group.
Importing all your paperwork and sources into a brand new pocket book is straightforward. As talked about earlier than, I usually quit at this level with content material administration purposes as a result of creating every particular person content material part takes a variety of toggling and brainpower. Whereas customization is nice, I’m extra of a plug-and-play sort of consumer. With NotebookLM, all you need to do is click on on “Create New” after which add a supply by dragging and dropping a file out of your laptop or drop a hyperlink or Google Workspace file.
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I opted to create a brand new pocket book for each story I used to be engaged on that had a number of parts, resembling an audio file with the interview I carried out, a press launch, a spec sheet, and so forth.
As soon as I uploaded all of the sources, I renamed the pocket book, discovered a abstract of sources, and routinely generated a transcript of all of the audio memos I uploaded. These options make it straightforward to maintain your workload filed neatly. For college students who must steadiness multiple sets of notes, exams, PowerPoints, readings, and extra, I can see this group system being so extremely useful.
2. Utilizing AI to look is definitely a game-changer
The core of the NotebookLM expertise lies within the AI options powering it. When you add every little thing into your pocket book, you might be met with a chat interface that is not very completely different from what you see on ChatGPT, Gemini, or some other AI chatbot you favor to make use of. The distinction is that this chat interface pulls info instantly from all of the sources you add, immediately making your content material searchable.
Additionally: Google’s NotebookLM can gather your research sources for you now – and it’s free
Whereas you can too add your sources to any of the favored chatbots and have a Q&A-like expertise, NotebookLM is ready aside by a few issues. First, it may synthesize a number of items of data directly from completely different mediums. So, if you happen to ask a broad query, it can pull from all the assets you fed it, present a solution knowledgeable by the collective, whereas additionally linking again to all of them with little footnotes. The second main win is that NotebookLM solely pulls from the knowledge you feed it.
It is a main benefit for college students and dealing professionals alike as a result of the most important danger when utilizing an AI chatbot is hallucinations and bias as a consequence of being skilled on everything of the web. By making certain it’s only pulling content material from the content material you enter, you’ll be able to take motion to ensure that the knowledge it is pulling from is from sources that you just belief. There may be additionally the choice to drop net hyperlinks if you need NotebookLM to reference prime sources, resembling informational YouTube videos. So you are not fully disconnected from the net — slightly, you simply have extra management.
It may possibly additionally search the transcripts that it routinely generated to your voice memos. This was an enormous win for me as a result of I uploaded interviews, which I used to be then capable of simply parse by saying one thing like, “What did the speaker say about XYZ?” after which I used to be proven the precise textual content. I can see this performance additionally being helpful for college students who document their lectures or working professionals who document their conferences.
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One other standout AI function consists of Audio Overviews, which produce an AI podcast between two hosts. ZDNET has written full, glowing evaluations on this function earlier than as a result of it’s actually that good. Personally, I’ve but to discover a state of affairs during which I may benefit from the Audio Overviews, principally as a result of the content material I’m importing into NotebookLM is already content material I’ve learn and am acquainted with. Nevertheless, college students who might wish to be taught extra a few specific topic or working professionals who might wish to know extra in regards to the supplies they’ve but to be briefed about could possibly profit.
3. Enterprise-level safety for Google Workspace plans
When you’ve got entry to NotebookLM through your Google Workspace account supplied by your organization, group, or college, then you definitely additionally get to take pleasure in enterprise-level protections on the knowledge you add. These stipulations embrace protections resembling not having the ability to prepare in your information, which is particularly necessary when coming into enterprise assets. That safety, mixed with all the solutions being pulled from the assets you give it, tackles the most important points that folks face when utilizing chatbots.
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You’ll be able to sustain with my newest tales and tech adventures on social media. Observe me on Twitter/X at @sabrinaa_ortiz and on Instagram at @sabrinaa.ortiz.
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