Everything you need to know about Google's viral AI podcast generator

ChatGPT is the undisputed king of AI consumer applications, but Google might have a budding contender on their hands. 

I'm talking about none other than NotebookLM, Google's super viral recent release.

Let’s break down everything you need to know.

What is NotebookLM?

Google markets NotebookLM as “Your personalized AI research assistant.” 

The way it works is simple. All you need to do is upload a source. Could be a PDF, a website, a Google Doc, or even a YouTube video. NotebookLM will then take all of this information and summarize it for you with either a chatbot, a study guide, or an "Audio Overview", which is just a fancy way to say a podcast.

These podcasts are staged as two hosts going back and forth about the information. And, thanks to a new update, you can now slip a note to the hosts in order to guide the conversation. So, if you want to adjust the expertise level or have it focus on a specific topic, just tell the hosts and they’ll take care of the rest.

Unsurprisingly, it is these podcasts that has captivated people the most.

Uncanningly good

The podcasts are freakishly good. There’s really no other way to describe them.

It’s something you have to use yourself to fully appreciate, but for now, just take a listen to this legal podcast.

If you want some more, just search through TikTok. You’ll find mind blowing example after example after example, which people are absolutely eating up.

NotebookLM also received a bunch of love on X. AI OG Karpathy says the podcast format reminds him of the excitement he felt when ChatGPT came out, journalist James Vincent thinks it’s the most useful AI tool from Big Tech on the market, and Wharton Professor Ethan Mollick describes it as “amazing and useful.”

However, not everyone was as impressed. Vivek Kaushal finds the podcasts to be filled with too much noise:

While investor and popular podcaster Chamath thinks the podcasts are only 70% of the way there in terms of information density:

But, considering the resources and brains that Google has, it seems likely that these flaws will eventually be smoothed out.

The limit is your imagination

Being the ingenious specimen we are, people are thinking about different ways to use NotebookLM outside of being a study buddy.

One TikTokker uploaded her childhood diary, turning it into a quasi-therapist, while Karpathy curated a whole new podcast series, which naturally puts into question the future of human-generated podcasts.

Meanwhile, Tibo is mixing NotebookLM and Revid to make faceless educational YouTube videos. 

With a technology this novel, the main limit to its abilities is your own imagination.