Google simply added a brand new customization device for the viral AI podcasts in its NotebookLM software program. I acquired early entry and examined it out utilizing Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis because the supply materials, spending a couple of hours producing podcasts concerning the seminal novella—a few of them extra unhinged than others.
Released by Google Labs in 2023 as an experimental, AI-focused writing device, NotebookLM has been having fun with a resurgence in consumer curiosity since early September, when the builders added an choice to generate podcast-like conversations between two AI voices—one male-sounding and one female-sounding—from uploaded paperwork. While these audio “deep dives” can be utilized for learning and productiveness, lots of the viral clips on-line targeted on the leisure issue of asking robotic hosts to debate weird or extremely private supply paperwork, like a LinkedIn profile.
Raiza Martin, who leads the NotebookLM workforce inside Google Labs, is pumped to provide customers extra management over the content material of those artificial podcasts. “It’s the number one feature we’ve heard people request,” she says. “They want to provide a little bit of feedback as to what the deep dive focuses on.” According to Martin, that is the primary replace of many coming down the pipeline.
Nearing the one yr anniversary of its full launch, NotebookLM can also be dropping the “experimental” tag—an indication it’s not headed in direction of the perpetual Google graveyard of deserted software program, or a minimum of for now. Martin says this label was eliminated because the workforce hit inner milestones for total high quality, consumer retention, and interface requirements. She additionally says customers can now count on a better degree of stability from the software program.
How to Customize the AI Podcasts
To make an AI podcast utilizing NotebookLM, open up the Google Labs web site and begin a New Notebook. Then, add any supply paperwork you want to be used for the audio output. These will be something from recordsdata in your laptop to YouTube hyperlinks.
Next, once you click on on the Notebook information, you’ll now see the choice to generate a deep dive in addition to the choice to customise it first. Choose Customize and add your immediate for a way you’d just like the AI podcast to return out. The software program suggests that you just think about what sections of the sources you’d like highlighted, bigger matters you need additional explored, or completely different meant audiences who you need the message to achieve.
One tip Martin shares for making an attempt out the brand new function is to generate the Audio Overview with out adjustments, and whilst you’re listening to this primary iteration, write down any burning questions you’ve gotten or matters you would like it expanded on. Afterwards, use these notes as a launching pad to create your prompts for NotebookLM and regenerate that AI podcast along with your pursuits in thoughts.
My First Impressions
I uploaded an 80-page file of Kafka’s well-known work of existential literature—in it, the principle character wakes up one morning to seek out that he has was a big bug—to see how the customization will work for NotebookLM customers. The first Audio Overview it generated, sans immediate customization, was a strong, albeit broad overview of what occurs within the novella, in addition to some dialogue of its key themes. Nothing groundbreaking, however respectable.
Thinking like a nerdy faculty English main, which I positively was, my first immediate adjustment was for the podcast dialogue to focus extra on themes of alienation and overbearing forms discovered within the ebook. With the additional nudge, this output from NotebookLM did an admirable job of zeroing in on these motifs and producing a dialogue that sounded just like what I’ve heard earlier than in faculty school rooms. It was a bit meandering, however completely listenable.