NotebookLM is a new tool from Google that uses AI to help users organize and understand information. Users can upload sources in various formats, including Google Docs, Slides, PDFs, and web pages, to create a notebook that functions as a central repository for knowledge. NotebookLM can then be used to answer questions about the sources, create summaries, and generate different types of guides. NotebookLM can also help users organize their thoughts and ideas by allowing them to create notes and use suggested actions to transform those notes into different formats, such as outlines or study guides. The tool also offers extensive features for research, including the ability to import quotes from books and web pages, and organize and analyze transcripts from meetings or interviews. In addition, NotebookLM includes features for sharing notebooks with collaborators and receiving feedback from the community.
NotebookLM google AI program
https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/f7607d7a-584c-4f35-96fc-f6815c573a6c
listen to 7min AI podcast - Introduction to NotebookLM https://ia600103.us.archive.org/22/items/listen-to-7min-ai-podcast-introduction-to-notebook-lm/listen%20to%207min%20AI%20podcast%20-%20Introduction%20to%20NotebookLM.wav
TRANSCRIPT to 7min NotebookLM AI podcast - Introduction to NotebookLM
Ever feel like you're just drowning in information? Oh, tell me about it. We're talking research papers, articles Yeah. Like, even a whole shelf of books on one topic. Right.
And you just need to, like, get a handle on it all. It's a struggle. Yeah. And there's gotta be a better way. Oh, there definitely is.
Well, that's what we're diving into today. Okay. NotebookLM. Interesting. It's this experimental AI research assistant thing Google's come up with.
Really fascinating stuff. Yeah. It's not just about organizing all that data. Right. It's about understanding it.
Yeah. It really digs in and synthesizes information from all those sources. Okay. So All those different places you find stuff. Yeah.
So from what I'm seeing, you can upload practically anything. Pretty much. Google Docs, PDFs. Yep. Even copy pasted text from a website.
It's, like, crazy. And it can handle a ton. Which is good. You're gonna need it with this much information overload these days. Oh, for sure.
The limit, I think it's somewhere around 500,000 words per source. Wow. So, yeah, like a whole digital library if you wanted. So you basically create your own searchable database? Yeah.
But it's more than that. Okay. So this is where it gets really interesting. Okay. It's not just storing the information.
It's actually reading and understanding it. You got it. Right. Like some super powered research assistant just absorbs everything That's wild. In seconds.
So no more endless scrolling, trying to find that one little thing Nope. You remember seeing somewhere. But None are those days. I'll think of this. Imagine you're working on a report.
Okay. You vaguely remember something about Thomas Edison and how he used stock options. Wait. What? Yeah.
Stock options back then. Yeah. Innovative. That's wild. But instead of digging through all those old books and articles Yeah.
You could ask notebook LM. Oh, okay. How did Edison incentivize his employees? Oh, that's a good question. Something like that.
And it wouldn't just, like, give some generic answer. Not a chance. Really good. It pulls the specific quote, the actual evidence Uh-huh. Right from your sources.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Even tells you exactly where it found the information. No way.
Yeah. Original context, everything, all in one place. Okay. Now that's a game changer. Right.
That kind of precision. Saves so much time. Oh, so much time and frustration. Exactly. Right.
Streamlines everything. So you can focus on the bigger picture. Exactly. Not just hunting down details. It's like going from a dusty old attic Oh, yeah.
To a perfectly organized library Love it. Uh-huh. Right at your fingertips. That's a great analogy. Right.
Yeah. And it really is remarkable. You know? What gets me, it's not just for, like, factual questions. K.
You can get really creative with notebook LM. Creative. How so? Give me an example. Okay.
Let's say you're working on a short story. Okay. You're stuck on something, some plot point. Right. You could feed it your drafts, even some of your favorite short stories by other authors.
Wow. And then just ask it for suggestions. Hold on. It could just do that. Yeah.
Why not? Just analyze writing styles like that Mhmm. And come up with ideas. Exactly. That's wild.
Okay. So Or say you're doing a business plan. Okay. You need some, I don't know, innovative product features. Yeah.
Those are always tough to come up with. You could upload market research Uh-huh. Competitor analysis, even customer reviews Wow. Ask it to help you brainstorm. So it's not just about, like, giving you back information you already put in.
No. No. No. It's about using that information. It's about the connections.
To come up with new ideas. Exactly. Things you wouldn't have thought of. Okay. Now that is pretty amazing.
It gets even better. Remember all those notes we were talking about? Oh, the stacks and stacks of notes. NotebookLM actually makes note taking, dare I say, elegant. Elegant.
Okay. You're talking to the queen of messy notes over here. I hear you. But imagine this. Okay.
As you're working with it Yeah. You can save any of its responses as notes. So you'll lose them. Exactly. And you're organizing as you go.
That'd be nice for a change. You can jot down your own thoughts Oh. Highlight quotes, group ideas together. So it's like this thought partner, kind of. Exactly that.
Helping me wrangle all these ideas into some semblance of order. Precisely. And it gets even more mind blowing. Okay. How?
You can ask Notebook l m to synthesize those notes. Synthesize? What does that mean, like, summarize? It's way more than summarizing. Okay.
Ask for a structured outline of your research. Okay. A study guide Oh, wow. Complete with essay questions even based on all your sources. That is cool.
Imagine having that in college. Oh, tell me about all those all nighters I pulled. It would been a lifesaver. Right? Totally.
But this isn't just for students. No. Anyone with a lot of information to deal with. Like podcasters. Exactly.
Let's say you record hours of interviews. Now don't even get me started. You know what I'm talking about. Trying to find that one good quote. It's impossible.
You could upload the transcripts. Wait. Hold on. Yeah. Transcripts as in, like, word for word everything.
Yes. Make sure they're formatted right, each paragraph, who's speaking. Okay. I guess that makes sense. And then you can be like, what did my guest say about topic in the episode on theme?
And it just finds it. It's just like that. That's wild. It's like a searchable database of all your conversations. Okay.
That is handy. And get this. It can even work with books. You're kidding me. Nope.
Every time you finish a book. Right? Yeah. Jot down a few things you like. Key takeaways, quotes, that kind of thing.
Exactly. You can even categorize them. Oh, yeah. I do that sometimes. So you're already doing it.
Just do the same thing in notebook l m. Include the author and title. So you've basically got your own searchable library. Of all your knowledge. Instead of just vaguely remembering, oh, I read something about that.
Right. I can actually find it again. There it is. Along with all my other notes on that topic. Exactly.
Connecting the dots. Wow. Building that network of knowledge. It really is an extension of your brain, isn't it? That's a great way to put it.
It's not just a tool. It's about organizing accessing all those thoughts and ideas Yes. That are already swirling around up there. NotebookLM changes how we think about knowledge, how we manage it, how we use it. It's like the future of knowledge management is here.
It really is an exciting time. Honestly, this is blowing my mind a little bit. It really is something. Like, we're on the verge of something huge here. I think so.
But before we go too far Yeah. Can we rewind for a sec? Okay. How does this even work? The magic question.
It's like magic, but it's not spells. It's algorithms. Exactly. And the magic you're talking about, it comes from Gemini. That's Google's new multimodal model.
Gemini. Okay. Yeah. It's the engine behind all this. So that's how it can read and understand all this stuff.
It's how it connects it all. Because we're not just talking keywords here. Oh, no. This is way beyond that. It's getting the context, the nuance.
It's understanding, not just seeing. Exactly. And that's what's so exciting. Has Think about how we do research now. Yeah.
It's a slog sometimes. But imagine analyzing huge datasets. Okay. Financial reports, historical archives, all of it. So much data out there.
And notebook LM just pinpoints what matters. Yeah. The connections that would take us, what, months? Years to find it's like having an AI research partner. The best kind never gets tired.
Exactly. Never complains about too much information. That's the dream. Right? And the best part, this is just the beginning.
Seriously. It's already this good. We're just scratching the surface as this technology keeps developing. Who knows what it'll be capable of? It's exciting and also a little bit intimidating.
Right? It's a whole new world of knowledge. So for someone listening to us right now Yeah. Who's thinking, okay. This all sounds amazing, but what does it actually mean for me?
Good question. What's the takeaway? It means knowledge is about to become way more accessible. I like the sound of that. Whether you're a student, a professional, just someone who loves to learn, notebook l m could change the game for you.
It's like that personalized AI assistant everyone wishes they had. Exactly. Helps you cut through all the noise. Find what you need when you need it. And it's not just finding it.
It's understanding it, making those connections. It's about unlocking new insights and possibilities. So instead of just, you know, consuming information Right. We can actually start to do something with it. Make real breakthroughs, solve real problems.
That's a powerful thought. Imagine every book, every article, every note Everything you've ever read, basically. All searchable, analyzable, right at your fingertips. That's a lot of brainpower. It changes everything, how we learn, how we work, how we see the world.
Wow. That is a powerful thought to end on. It really is. Sounds like the future of knowledge is here. It's here.
And it's personalized. It's incredibly powerful. And it's ready for us to explore. Thanks for diving into this with me. It's given me a lot to think about.
Me too. Always a pleasure.
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Here are 30 key takeaways from the provided NotebookLM sources:
1.
NotebookLM is a tool designed to help users better understand, analyze, and synthesize information from various sources.12345 It enables asking questions, generating summaries, creating notes, and organizing ideas based on uploaded documents.
2.
Users can upload various file types as sources, including Google Docs, Google Slides, PDFs, text files, and web URLs.1345... Each source is limited to 500,000 words, and a notebook can hold up to 50 sources.
3.
NotebookLM creates a copy of uploaded Google Docs, Slides, PDFs, and text files, ensuring that the original files remain unchanged.3 The app will notify users if the original Google Doc or Slide has been modified, giving them the option to update the source.
4.
NotebookLM supports images within Google Docs and Slides, allowing users to ask questions about visual information.89 This includes photos, charts, graphs, diagrams, and other visual elements.
5.
NotebookLM can generate different types of guides to help users explore and understand their sources.7101112 These guides include summaries, suggested questions, and formatted options such as FAQs, Briefing Docs, Timelines, Tables of Contents, and Study Guides.
6.
A key feature of NotebookLM is its ability to provide citations for the answers it generates.131415 These citations are direct quotes from the source material, allowing users to verify the accuracy of the information and easily locate the original text.
7.
NotebookLM offers "Suggested Actions" based on what a user has selected within the app.151617 For instance, selecting a passage from a source may prompt suggestions like "Summarize to note" or "Help me understand."
8.
Users can create two types of notes in NotebookLM: "Saved Responses" and "Written Notes."1718 Saved Responses capture chat interactions or quotes from sources, while Written Notes allow users to compose their own thoughts.
9.
NotebookLM enables a "Curate and Create" workflow, allowing users to select multiple notes and transform them into different formats.219 Users can combine notes, summarize content, organize them thematically, create study guides, or generate custom formats.
10.
NotebookLM assists with writing by offering tools to improve style and substance.20 Users can request critiques of their writing, get suggestions for related ideas from their sources, or use NotebookLM to create outlines or draft paragraphs.
11.
Notebooks are the organizational units within NotebookLM, similar to folders on a computer.49 Each notebook is independent, and NotebookLM can't access information from multiple notebooks simultaneously.
12.
Notebooks can be shared with other users, granting them either "Viewer" or "Editor" access.21 Viewers have read-only access to sources and notes, while Editors can modify both.
13.
Sharing notebooks is restricted to users within the same domain (e.g., @gmail.com, @xyz.edu).22 Personal Gmail and EDU accounts can share with a maximum of 50 individual users, while Enterprise accounts have unlimited sharing capabilities.
14.
NotebookLM doesn't currently offer version control or revision history for notes.22 This means any changes made to notes are not tracked.
15.
When asking questions, users can control which sources NotebookLM uses to formulate a response.2223 Checkboxes next to each source in the Sources section allow users to include or exclude specific sources.
16.
While NotebookLM can accurately report numbers from sources, it's not designed for complex mathematical calculations.24 It's better suited for retrieving numerical data than performing calculations.
17.
NotebookLM's interface emphasizes focus, allowing users to narrow down the AI's attention to specific sources or notes.225 This ensures responses are relevant to the user's immediate area of interest.
18.
NotebookLM is particularly useful for tasks that involve synthesizing information across multiple documents.5 This makes it valuable for research, analysis, and knowledge work.
19.
Users can effectively utilize NotebookLM for research by creating a notebook for a specific project and adding relevant documents as sources.5 This allows NotebookLM to function as a research assistant, answering questions based on the uploaded material.
20.
When uploading a collection of sources, NotebookLM generates a "Notebook Guide" with various pre-formatted guides to help users navigate the material.12 These guides include summaries, FAQs, study guides, briefing documents, and timelines.
21.
Users can create effective source material from books or e-books by capturing important quotes and saving them in a Google Doc.26 Including metadata like author, title, and page number in each paragraph helps NotebookLM understand and process the information.
22.
Tools like Google Play e-reader and ReadWise can streamline the process of capturing and exporting quotes from books into a format suitable for NotebookLM.27
23.
Google Keep is another helpful tool for gathering research material from the web.28 Users can save text selections and web page URLs to Keep, later exporting them to a Google Doc for use in NotebookLM.
24.
NotebookLM's note-taking capabilities facilitate brainstorming and idea organization.29 Users can pin interesting ideas, responses from the AI, or citations as notes, later transforming them into outlines, summaries, or other formats.
25.
NotebookLM is a powerful tool for working with meeting or interview transcripts.30 It can summarize content, locate specific information, and identify quotes from different speakers.
26.
To maximize NotebookLM's effectiveness with transcripts, users should ensure that each paragraph includes the speaker's name, especially for longer transcripts.31 This helps NotebookLM accurately associate information with the correct speaker.
27.
Users can include time codes in transcripts by adding them to the beginning or end of each paragraph.3233 This allows for precise retrieval of information based on timestamps.
28.
NotebookLM's citation features streamline the process of gathering quotes for scripts, summaries, or other purposes.33 Users can copy citations directly from NotebookLM into their notes.
29.
NotebookLM is currently best accessed and viewed on a desktop computer due to font size limitations on mobile devices.34
30.
NotebookLM is available to personal Google accounts and specific enterprise Google Workspace or Google Workspace for Education users.34 Access may vary depending on the type of Google account.
Here is a step-by-step procedure for uploading a web URL as a source in NotebookLM, based on the information provided in the sources:
1.
In the "Sources" section on the left side of the screen, click "Add Source" or the "+" icon.123 This will open a menu of options for adding sources.
2.
Select "Web URL."3
3.
Paste the URL of the web page you want to add as a source.3 Make sure the URL is correct and leads to the desired page.
4.
Click "Insert."3 This will upload the web page content as a source in your notebook.
NotebookLM will then process the web page and create a source guide for it, similar to how it does for other source types.4 You can then interact with the content of the web page just like you would with any other source in NotebookLM.567 Remember that each source must be fewer than 500,000 words, and each notebook can contain up to 50 sources.38