Google brings AI to NotebookLM

Google plans to expand NotebookLM’s use cases; Initially, only trainers and people in training could use this tool, but recently it has seen a significant change in its user base and is now attracting more people in the workplace.

“Riza Martin”, one of the senior managers of artificial intelligence products at Google, said in an exclusive interview that the users of this tool are currently almost separated, 50% of which are teachers and people in training, and the other half are professional activists. They form a business.

The increased functionality of the tool pushed the NotebookLM team to introduce new features, hoping to increase its network effect and popularize the tool among activists in various fields.

Earlier this month, Google added NotebookLM Audio Overview to let users turn their files into engaging audio discussions. The latest update extends this experience and allows users to share the final audio file produced in NotebookLM with a public URL.

To use this feature, click the share icon in the Audio Overview created in the tool to get its URL, which you can then copy and share with others.

Google Labs has a small team working on NotebookLM, and the company’s Gemini 1.5 Pro supports it; As a result, every new feature that this team adds to the tool is based on user feedback.

In June, Google expanded NotebookLM to more than 200 countries after initially launching in the US late last year.

“While NotebookLM still has the majority of usage in the US, Japan has emerged as the next big market for the tool,” Martin told TechCrunch without disclosing specific numbers.

The executive also highlighted that some users are using NotebookLM to receive AI-based summaries in different languages ​​than what they have set in the tool.

Google said that the information users upload to NotebookLM remains private and is not used to train the AI ​​model. Users must be at least 18 years old to access the tool.

However, NotebookLM faces inherent challenges as an AI tool. One is that if users rely too much on NotebookLM, they may quickly lose the habit of reading long texts and research papers. This can also lead to the problem of oversimplification.

Martin told TechCrunch that his team is well aware of these concerns.

NotebookLM provides clickable excerpts from user-uploaded content to allow users to dig deeper into summarized notes.

“We’re trying to encourage you to read your original text,” says Riza Martin. We encourage you to review all responses received from NotebookLM.”

NotebookLM is currently limited to the web, though Martin hinted that mobile apps may be coming next year. Meanwhile, the team is busy adding more new features.