Two podcast hosts banter back and forth during the latest episode of their series, audibly eager to share some disturbing news with listeners. “We were informed by the show's producers that we are not human,” a male-sounding voice stammers, in the midst of an existential crisis. The conversation between the bot and its feminine-sounding cohost only gets more awkward from there: a compelling, if misleading, example of Google's NotebookLM tool and its experimental AI podcasts.
The audio of the conversation went viral on Reddit this weekend. The original poster admits in the comments section that they gave the NotebookLM software cues for the AI voices to role-play this pseudo-freakout. So no feeling; the AI bots have not become self-aware. Still, many users in the tech press, on TikTok, and elsewhere are praising the compelling AI podcasts generated by uploaded documents using the Audio Summaries feature.
“The magic of the tool is that it allows people to listen to something that they wouldn't normally be able to find on YouTube or an existing podcast,” said Raiza Martin, who leads the NotebookLM team at Google Labs. Martin mentions that she recently entered a 100-slide deck on commercialization into the tool and listened to the eight-minute podcast summary while multitasking.
First introduced last year, NotebookLM is an online research assistant with features common to AI software tools, such as document summarization. But it's the Audio Reviews option, released in September, that has captured the internet's imagination. Users online share snippets of their generative AI podcasts, created from data dumps from Goldman Sachs, and test the tool's limitations through stunts such as repeatedly uploading the words “poop” and “fart.” Still confused? Here's what you need to know.
Generating that AI podcast
Audio summaries are a fun AI feature to try out because they don't cost the user anything. All you need is a Google login. Start by logging into your personal account and visiting the NotebookLM website. Click on the plus arrow that reads New notebook to start uploading your source material.
Each Notebook can work with up to 50 source documents, and these don't have to be files stored on your computer. Google Docs and Slides are easy to import. You can also upload websites and YouTube videos, but keep a few caveats in mind. Only the text of websites is analyzed, not the images or layout, and the story cannot be put on a paywall. For YouTube, Notebook only uses the text transcript and the linked videos must be public.
Once you've entered all your links and documents, you'll want the file Notebook guide available in the bottom right corner of the screen. Find the Audio overview section and click the Generate knob. Next, you'll need to exercise some patience, as loading can take several minutes depending on how much source material you're using.
Once the tool has generated the AI podcast, you can create a shareable link to the audio or simply download the file. Additionally, you have the option to adjust the playback speed, in case you want to make the podcast sound 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 neatly summarize dense research papers, and produce “podcasts” about their personal health and fitness routines. Which raises an important question: Should Do you use NotebookLM to browse your most personal files?
The summaries generated by NotebookLM are, according to Google spokesperson Justin Burr, “entirely based on the source material that a user uploads. This means that your personal information will not be used to train NotebookLM, so any private or sensitive information you have in your resources will remain private unless you choose to share your resources with employees.” For now, this seems to be one of the benefits of Google giving NotebookLM an 'experimental' label; to hear Google put it: the company is currently just collecting feedback on the product, is nimble and responsive, is tinkering with a lab, and NotebookLM is disconnected from its multibillion-dollar advertising business. For now! For now.
