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Google has ventured into the generative AI space with varied success, but that hasn’t deterred it. The search giant, owned by Alphabet, continues to roll out new products, services, and features.
Today, Google revealed that its experimental AI-powered online note-taking app, NotebookLM, which was initially available to selected users via a waitlist in July, is now freely accessible to all adult users in the U.S. who choose to opt-in.
NotebookLM has been upgraded and now utilizes Google’s new Gemini AI model, specifically the “Gemini Pro” version, which is the most advanced of the Gemini models launched earlier this week. Future releases include a more comprehensive Gemini Ultra with higher parameter counts planned for next year, and a streamlined Gemini Nano designed for smartphones running on Google’s Android operating system.
How NotebookLM Works
NotebookLM, designed in collaboration with author Steven Johnson, allows users to upload multiple documents from their computers or Google Drive into a single digital note space. Users can then interact with these documents using Google’s AI, asking questions that the AI answers based on the provided content.
According to Google Labs Editorial Director Steven Johnson and Product Manager Raiza Martin, “When you upload documents to NotebookLM, it becomes an instant expert in the information you need for your projects, capable of answering questions based on the supplied sources.”
With the latest upgrades, NotebookLM can now analyze and reference up to 20 documents simultaneously, each containing up to 200,000 words. For example, a student studying for exams could upload their reading materials and engage in a dialog with the AI, asking it to generate sample test questions. Similarly, a researcher could upload prior studies or data and query the AI for insights using Google’s chatbot interface.
This concept aims to cater to a wide range of general-purpose users across different industries, mimicking the role of a personalized AI assistant that retrieves specific knowledge tailored to individual users, their tasks, or their organizations.
Initial Impressions and Limitations
There is a significant limitation that could hinder NotebookLM’s effectiveness: it cannot analyze or browse web links, even those embedded in user notes. This exclusion is surprising given Google’s expertise in web crawling and indexing. Users must save and upload PDFs of web pages or paste the text into a Google Doc in Google Drive for NotebookLM to analyze the data.
In our brief tests, NotebookLM sometimes failed to reference the full text of provided PDFs, omitting critical details such as key names from the U.S. Declaration of Independence, despite those names being present in the source material. However, after several attempts, we were able to obtain correct responses from NotebookLM.
Though the user interface showed some inconsistencies, such as mismatched fonts, it did not affect the overall functionality of the product. Google does caution that “NotebookLM may still sometimes give inaccurate responses, so you may want to confirm any facts independently.”
U.S. users with a free Google account can now try NotebookLM for themselves.