Home Google’s NotebookLM improves AI note-taking with newly released features

Google’s NotebookLM improves AI note-taking with newly released features

Google has this week (September 26) shared new additions to its AI note-taking and research assistant NotebookLM, including shareable AI-generated audio discussions and YouTube summaries.

While NotebookLM was initially launched as a project at the I/O developer conference in 2023, the search giant is now expanding its use cases and reach.

In a news release published on Thursday, the author shares the details: “You can now add public YouTube URLs and audio files to your notebook for an even deeper understanding of your sources.”

They write that early testing has outlined three ways the new source type in YouTube and audio files can be used. This includes:

Analyzing videos and lectures: When you upload YouTube videos to NotebookLM, it summarizes key concepts and allows for in-depth exploration through inline citations linked directly to the video’s transcript. It’s great for comparing perspectives across multiple sources on a specific issue, and you can view the videos inside NotebookLM with the embedded YouTube player.

“Making connections within audio recordings: You can streamline team projects by adding audio recordings and having NotebookLM search across the transcribed conversations to locate specific information, eliminating the need for listening to long audio files for the important nuggets.

“Creating study guides: You can transform class recordings, handwritten notes, and lecture slides into comprehensive study guides with a single click. These automatically generated guides consolidate all of the key information for convenient access.”

Google’s NotebookLM expands beyond educators

It was just two weeks ago when Google introduced ‘Audio Overview’ for NotebookLM and now sharing that file directly has been made possible.

Once an audio overview has been created, users simply need to tap ‘share’, and a public link is then generated to be shared with others.

Dubbed by the search giant as an ‘AI notebook for everyone,’ the tool was originally used solely by educators and learners. Now though, a shift has taken place and the company is seeing more people in a general workplace environment using its features.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Raiza Martin the senior product manager for AI at Google Labs said that its users are now roughly split. “With 50% being educators and learners, and the other half consisting of business professionals.”

Featured Image: via Google News

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Sophie Atkinson
Tech Journalist

Sophie Atkinson is a UK-based journalist and content writer, as well as a founder of a content agency which focuses on storytelling through social media marketing. She kicked off her career with a Print Futures Award which champions young talent working in print, paper and publishing. Heading straight into a regional newsroom, after graduating with a BA (Hons) degree in Journalism, Sophie started by working for Reach PLC. Now, with five years experience in journalism and many more in content marketing, Sophie works as a freelance writer and marketer. Her areas of specialty span a wide range, including technology, business,…

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