Probably the greatest elements of my job is that I get to speak with business of us who, like me, eat and breathe AI instruments. After assembly with one more (non-Google-affiliated) media particular person final week who advised me how a lot they beloved NotebookLM, I made a decision to offer it an actual attempt.
Though I’ve tried a number of NotebookLM options for the positioning earlier than and have been impressed, discovering a solution to incorporate NotebookLM into my workflow appeared daunting — particularly as a result of each time I attempted mission administration instruments similar to 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).
- Straightforward to prepare your information
Google describes NotebookLM as a “Your Customized AI Analysis Assistant,” and whereas the title could also be true, it’s a little obscure. Virtually talking, NotebookLM is a digital info supervisor in which you’ll add your individual information and manage them into “notebooks.”
These notebooks then have many AI-powered options, similar to 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 speak about 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 sometimes surrender at this level with content material administration functions as a result of creating every particular person content material part takes loads of toggling and brainpower. Whereas customization is nice, I’m extra of a plug-and-play kind of consumer. With NotebookLM, all you must do is click on on “Create New” after which add a supply by dragging and dropping a file out of your pc or drop a hyperlink or Google Workspace file.
I opted to create a brand new pocket book for each story I used to be engaged on that had a number of parts, similar to an audio file with the interview I performed, a press launch, a spec sheet, and so on.
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 need to steadiness a number of units 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 the whole lot 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 every other AI chatbot you like 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.
This can be a main benefit for college kids and dealing professionals alike as a result of the largest danger when utilizing an AI chatbot is hallucinations and bias because of being educated 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 guarantee that the knowledge it is pulling from is from sources that you simply belief. There may be additionally the choice to drop net hyperlinks if you need NotebookLM to reference prime sources, similar to informational YouTube movies. So you are not utterly disconnected from the net — relatively, you simply have extra management.
It might 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 in a position to 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 useful for college kids who file their lectures or working professionals who file their conferences.
One other standout AI function contains Audio Overviews, which produce an AI podcast between two hosts. ZDNET has written full, glowing critiques on this function earlier than as a result of it’s actually that good. Personally, I’ve but to discover a state of affairs wherein I may gain advantage from the Audio Overviews, largely as a result of the content material I’m importing into NotebookLM is already content material I’ve learn and am conversant in. Nevertheless, college students who could need to be taught extra a couple of specific topic or working professionals who could need to know extra in regards to the supplies they’ve but to be briefed about might be able to profit.
3. Enterprise-level safety for Google Workspace plans
If in case you have entry to NotebookLM by your Google Workspace account supplied by your organization, group, or college, then you definitely additionally get to get pleasure from enterprise-level protections on the knowledge you add. These stipulations embrace protections similar to not with the ability to prepare in your information, which is very vital when coming into enterprise sources. That safety, mixed with the entire solutions being pulled from the sources you give it, tackles the largest points that individuals face when utilizing chatbots.
You’ll be able to sustain with my newest tales and tech adventures on social media. Comply with me on Twitter/X at @sabrinaa_ortiz and on Instagram at @sabrinaa.ortiz.
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