Things To Play With
E.T Focus Morning
E.T Focus Morning
Now, when you search using Google the first item is likely to be not a link to a particular website but a summary answer drawing from many websites, labelled. Then Google will, as it always has, list various websites.
The disadvantage of a long list of websites is that the user has to look at each one, compare the differences etc. AI can do that for us producing just one result. The Google summary is a step towards that. Other LLMs are taking it a step further and raising doubts about the future of traditional search engines.
Ideally, they include links to the sources so that the user can check the results.
Perplexity is considered a search engine. It will produce a single answer but provide links to its sources. One of its options is "Pro Search" which searches 3 times as many sources.
New types of browsers are emerging (see below).
But what if you want a list of links?
Ask for that. See below.
Enter anything into Google and note the summary at (or near) the top.
Enter a prompt on any subject into any of the LLMs.
If you want a list of links, try something like the following:
"Please list 10 YouTube videos containing biblical teaching on forgiveness, suitable for teenagers".
"Please find the best free Bible studies on Romans available online".
"What are the best sites that contain free online Bible commentaries?"
If they do not produce quite what you wanted, modify the prompt.
N.B. Gemini is the Google AI system. YouTube is owned by Google. Gemini might be better equipped to find YouTube videos.
Perplexity looks like they are about to launch a new browser.
More serious research requires a "deep research" option. The following have that.
ChatGPT (OpenAi) deep research option. Requires a paid subscription.
Perplexity - 5 free requests per day
At the left of the bar where you type your prompt, choose "Deep Research".
Gemini - select Deep Research in the search bar.
Grok () has a deep research option.
Not really a deep research tool but does a pretty good job.
NotebookLM (Google)
Give it documents, urls etc and then ask questions to help you understand that material
Things you can do:
Create a podcast that discusses the documents you have given it.
But, don't forget that you can simply ask it to give you information from those documents without creating a podcast.
The process is:
Give it all your source material in the left pane. Upload files (pdf, .txt, or audio (e.g. MP3), give it the link to a file in your Google drive (doc or slides), give it the url of a webpage, or paste in text. You can include up to 50 sources.
NotebookLM uses only those sources. It doesn't incorporate other material.
Chat with it by typing (middle pane) or click on the appropriate buttons to add your own notes, produce an audio overview (podcast), or a briefing document.
In the right hand pane, there are buttons to produce a study guide, briefing doc, FAQ, or timeline.
Make an audio overview (right hand (Studio) pane)
You can change some of the parameters
tweak the voices, speed etc.
tell it what to focus on or what you particular interest is.
In interactive mode, you can interrupt the podcast and ask clarifying questions.
Download or share your audio overview if you want to.
Writing Your Research
Producing a written text from speech e.g. taking the minutes of a meeting.
Transcribe, summarise, identify action points etc.
Can be used online or as a phone app.
11Scribe (produced by ElevenLabs)
Whisper (OpenAI)
Gemini 2.0 Flash
Most LLMs can produce code. It is one of the things that seems to be prioritised. Some will allow you to run that code (i.e. test your programme)within the LLM.
I do not have much experience in this area.
More specialised tools
But there are also sites specifically set up for coding. They take your written description of what you want and try to produce a programme or app to do it. You can then ask for added functions or whatever and, via this iterative process, tweak the programme to get what you want.
Gemini Stream Realtime - You can talk to it and it talks back. It can see your screen (if you give it permission) and it can then, for example, guide you in using the software you are using. For example, in Excel, "How do I calculate an average of the 10:00 a.m. attendance numbers?"
Some sites contain AI models that are being developed. They allow people to use them, possibly for the feedback they get.
What is available might vary depending on what is under development.