It is designed to build on NotebookLM’s existing functionality to help you interact with all your notes, transcripts, and other research documents. The app already uses Google’s Gemini AI model to help summarize your research, sort of like its audio version.
Google’s claim that its artificial intelligence hosts “joke” with each other isn’t a fabrication either. When I tried out the information summary myself, I inserted a paradigm notebook about the invention of the light bulb and the results were… a little weird. During the 10-minute overview, the two hosts relaxedly discussed how Thomas Edison wasn’t the only man behind the lightbulb and how “ultimately, it’s really a story about teamwork and making a dream come true.”
The organizer can almost Judging by the way they emphasize “bam!” they could be mistaken for human podcasters. Modern phrasings such as “messy as heck” can be used when it is placed in the middle of a sentence. There are also some quirks, as I noticed that the AI would spell out certain words and phrases, like “PLUS.” Some words are not exactly what humans would say. An artificial intelligence host called platinum a “bling bling metal.”
This feature makes studying research more engaging, but I wonder if the presenters would maintain a light-hearted, somewhat tongue-in-cheek tone when discussing more serious topics like cancer or war. There’s also a lot of filler during the conversation, so it’s probably not the best way to extract all the information quickly and clearly.
Google mentioned this in its announcement, as it said the feature “is not a comprehensive or objective view on a topic and is simply a reflection of your notes.”
There are some other limitations to the audio overview, with Google saying it can take a few minutes to generate a podcast-like discussion, and it’s only available in English. Like many artificial intelligence tools, it’s not always accurate.
You can try this feature yourself by opening a notebook in NotebookLM. From there, select the notebook guide in the lower right corner of the screen and click load Below the “Message Overview” heading. I knew I was going to do some research on a random topic so I could hear what the AI podcast had to say.
