Notebook LM is a powerful tool. 

For those of you who may not know what it is yet, I made a video on my Youtube channel doing a quick walkthrough into how it works and how I used it to convert a 50 page research paper into a 21 minute podcast. I've linked that video below.

But in short notebook LM is basically an AI powered research tool by Google where you insert your own sources of data and information and the AI model can only base its responses on this personalised knowledge base. You can ask questions about the information you have uploaded and the AI will reference the information in its answers. But if for example I uploaded a pdf and Youtube video about post-soviet Russia and preceded to ask the AI a question about quantum chemistry, the AI will be just as lost as me and you.

This tool is optimal for people who want to ensure that the AI is only basing responses of reliable information or for people who wish for AI to work based on their own carefully created notes, essentially offering them more control over the AI output. One can upload information sources of varying types. You can upload Youtube links, audio files, pdfs, website links and more, and Notebook LM will consolidate all these sources into one knowledge base which you can then use to research or even create formatted documents out of. 

A thing I really like is that you can customise how the AI responds to your prompts as well as the response length. For example if I want a short simple explanation of an organic chemistry concept which I personally know little to nothing about, I can ask it to respond to me as if I am a 5 year old and it will give me a very broken down, analogy-packed explanation, enthusiastic explanation.

You can also generate downloadable podcasts between two hosts based on your uploaded knowledge base which I believe to be an incredible tool and one that I will leverage plenty. The hosts are extremely (but also weirdly) human like and the podcasts are very engaging. Similar to the chat feature, you can customise the style of the podcast, the length as well as the content, tailoring it towards whatever you require. Personally, I see myself using this a lot for language learning, especially as I start preparing for my C1 DELE Spanish Exam. I imagine that I will be able to upload sources about any specific themes and ask it to generate a C1 Spanish level podcast which I could then upload back into Notebook and then ask for a comprehension exam with answers. The opportunities with this tool are endless in my opinion and I look forward to testing out new things and sharing it with you all.

I also quite like their mind map feature. Once you have uploaded your sources, you can ask Notebook to generate a mind map where it deconstructs the data you have uploaded into information sub - categories which can then be broken down into further subcategories allowing you to focus on particular topics of interest at a time. This is really effective if you do not want to be overwhelmed with a large amount of information; the AI neatly organises the data for you and allows you to be more efficient with your time and focus on only the parts that matter to you.

There are so many more features and use cases that I haven’t discussed but I am still in the early days of testing out this amazing research tool so hopefully I will be writing more blogs sharing with you new features I have discovered and how I am integrating into my study and work flows.

If you have been using NotebookLM in any unique ways, do reach out to me via Instagram, email or Linkedin, I would love to know.

Until next time!