Google made a new AI note app - NotebookLM review

Shu Omi
22 Mar 202408:17

TLDRGoogle introduces NotebookLM, an AI-powered note-taking app designed to assist users in organizing and understanding information. It offers automatic content analysis, suggesting topics for exploration and providing insights from uploaded documents. The app can organize notes into structured documents and even create outlines or newsletters based on user commands. NotebookLM is currently available in the U.S. for users aged 18 and above.

Takeaways

  • 📘 Google introduced NotebookLM, an AI-powered note-taking app designed to assist with understanding and writing.
  • 🎓 Ideal for students, academics, writers, and teachers, NotebookLM could simplify tasks like writing papers and essays.
  • 📱 The app's interface is similar to Google Keep, offering a simple and intuitive user experience.
  • 🔍 It features automatic content analysis, distilling key insights from uploaded documents or links.
  • 💡 After analyzing content, NotebookLM suggests topics for exploration and aids in brainstorming.
  • 🗂️ Users can interact with NotebookLM to discuss study materials or research documents directly.
  • 📚 It focuses on the documents provided by users, ensuring information is relevant and accurate.
  • 📖 NotebookLM can organize notes and articles into structured documents, such as study guides or project outlines.
  • ✍️ The app allows users to command it to format notes into specific outputs like newsletters or scripts.
  • 🔗 It provides reliable responses with citations from user-provided documents, ensuring traceability.
  • 🤝 It's suitable for collaborative work and can be shared with others for group projects or study sessions.

Q & A

  • What is Google's NotebookLM and how does it differ from a typical note app?

    -NotebookLM is an AI collaborator that not only takes notes but also helps users understand ideas and write better. It's designed to be an intuitive tool for processing information and making sense of it, with features that go beyond simple note-taking.

  • Who might find Google's NotebookLM particularly useful?

    -NotebookLM is particularly useful for students, academics, writers, and teachers as it can assist in writing papers, essays, and organizing research materials effectively.

  • How does the user interface of NotebookLM compare to Google Keep?

    -The user interface of NotebookLM is similar to Google Keep, offering a familiar and simple design that is intuitive and easy to use, with resources on the left and notes and chat space with AI on the right.

  • What is one of the key features of NotebookLM that helps with content analysis?

    -One of the key features of NotebookLM is its automatic content analysis, which actively analyzes the content of links or documents provided, distilling them into key insights and saving users from manual processing.

  • How does NotebookLM assist with brainstorming and exploring topics?

    -After analyzing content, NotebookLM suggests various topics for exploration, which is beneficial for brainstorming and learning from different perspectives. Users can interact with the AI to flesh out topics, broadening their understanding or delving into details.

  • What sets NotebookLM apart from other AI writing apps in terms of its interaction with uploaded materials?

    -NotebookLM stays grounded in the documents provided by users, focusing on the specific materials uploaded rather than pulling information from the internet at large. This makes it more tailored to the user's needs.

  • How can NotebookLM help organize a large number of notes and articles for a project?

    -NotebookLM can tidy up a large number of notes and articles into structured documents like study guides or project outlines. Users can instruct NotebookLM to organize information into specific formats such as email newsletters or script outlines.

  • What is the benefit of pinning responses in NotebookLM?

    -Pinning responses in NotebookLM allows users to save important insights or information as notes, making them easily accessible for later reference without having to search through previous interactions.

  • How does NotebookLM ensure the accuracy and reliability of its responses?

    -NotebookLM ensures accuracy by being upfront when it doesn't have enough information to answer a question, and it provides responses with citations from the user's own documents, allowing users to trace the source of information.

  • What is the role of NotebookLM in collaborative work and group projects?

    -NotebookLM is useful for collaborative work as it allows sharing notebooks with others, which can be a game-changer for group projects or study sessions, facilitating the organization and sharing of research and ideas.

  • What are some limitations or drawbacks of NotebookLM mentioned in the script?

    -Some limitations of NotebookLM include its current availability only in the U.S. for users who are 18 and older, the lack of important features like adding images, tasks, or formatting texts, and the tedious process of importing sources without a browser extension for direct web import.

Outlines

00:00

📘 Introduction to NotebookLM

Google's NotebookLM is an AI-powered tool designed to assist users in understanding ideas and improving their writing. It's particularly beneficial for students, academics, writers, and teachers. The app has a familiar interface akin to Google Keep, offering simplicity and ease of use. It features automatic content analysis, which actively digests and summarizes uploaded documents and links, and suggests topics for exploration. Users can interact with the AI to delve deeper into specific subjects. NotebookLM stands out for its ability to focus on user-provided materials, organizing them into structured documents and formats like study guides or email newsletters upon request. It also ensures accuracy by providing responses with citations from the user's documents and can suggest follow-up questions to encourage deeper exploration of topics. Additionally, it's a collaborative tool that can be shared among team members for group projects or study sessions.

05:03

🔍 Using NotebookLM as a Research Companion

NotebookLM can be integrated into a workflow as a research companion rather than a traditional note or writing app. Users can upload various resources such as academic papers, URLs, articles, and reports. The AI then helps in identifying interesting topics and gathering insights, which can be supplemented with personal notes. It organizes information into structured outlines or guides, which can then be used to write in other applications. The tool can also fill research gaps during writing by providing information from previously uploaded sources. An innovative use case involves importing reading highlights from Readwise to retrieve specific information quickly. However, there are limitations such as geographical availability, lack of certain note app features like images and tasks, and the inconvenience of not having a direct web import feature. Despite these, NotebookLM is a free, experimental tool that can be accessed with a VPN for those curious to explore its capabilities.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡AI collaborator

An AI collaborator refers to artificial intelligence that works alongside humans to assist in tasks. In the context of the video, NotebookLM is described as an AI collaborator because it helps users understand ideas and write better, much like a human collaborator would. It's designed to make the process of writing papers and essays easier, suggesting that it's a tool that can think and create alongside the user.

💡Automatic content analysis

Automatic content analysis is the process by which a system automatically examines text or data to identify patterns, extract insights, or summarize information. NotebookLM uses this feature to analyze documents and links, distilling them into digestible summaries for the user. This is showcased in the script where it's mentioned that NotebookLM doesn't just store documents but actively analyzes them to provide key insights.

💡Intuitive interface

An intuitive interface is one that is easy to understand and use without requiring training or instruction. The script describes NotebookLM's design as similar to Google Keep, which is appreciated for its simplicity and ease of use, suggesting that NotebookLM also has an intuitive interface. This makes it accessible to a wide range of users, allowing them to quickly start benefiting from its features.

💡Resource library

A resource library is a collection of materials, such as documents, articles, or notes, that are organized for easy access and reference. The video mentions NotebookLM acting as a resource library with AI, where it organizes uploaded materials and even suggests ways to structure them, like study guides or project outlines, making it easier for users to manage their research and notes.

💡Content distillation

Content distillation is the process of reducing complex information into a simpler, more concise form. The script illustrates this with the example of NotebookLM taking a collection of articles and summarizing them into key insights, which saves the user time and effort in manually summarizing the content.

💡Structured documents

Structured documents are organized pieces of writing that follow a specific format or template. The video describes how NotebookLM can tidy up notes and articles into structured documents, such as study guides or project outlines. This feature is beneficial for users who need to transform their notes into a coherent and organized format for further use.

💡AI writing apps

AI writing apps are software tools that use artificial intelligence to assist in the writing process, such as generating text or editing. The script contrasts NotebookLM with other AI writing apps by emphasizing that it stays grounded in the documents provided by the user, rather than pulling information from the internet at large. This makes NotebookLM more focused and relevant to the user's specific materials.

💡Citations

Citations are references to the sources of information used in a piece of writing. The video highlights that NotebookLM provides responses with citations from the user's own documents, ensuring accuracy and allowing users to trace the origins of the information. This feature is particularly useful for academic or professional writing where proper attribution is crucial.

💡Collaborative work

Collaborative work involves multiple people working together on a task or project. The script mentions that NotebookLM is perfect for collaborative work as users can share notebooks with others, which could be a game-changer for group projects or study sessions. This feature allows for shared access and input, enhancing teamwork and efficiency.

💡Reading highlights

Reading highlights refer to passages or sections of text that a reader finds particularly important or interesting. The video suggests using NotebookLM to organize reading highlights from other platforms, such as Readwise, allowing users to quickly access and incorporate relevant information into their writing. This showcases NotebookLM's utility in managing and leveraging previously consumed content.

💡Experimental tool

An experimental tool is a product or service that is still in the testing phase and may have limitations or be subject to change. The script notes that NotebookLM is an experimental tool, currently only available in the U.S. for users who are 18 and older, and may have features that are still being developed or refined. This implies that while it offers innovative functionality, it may also have some constraints or require a VPN for users outside the U.S.

Highlights

Google announces NotebookLM, an AI-powered note app designed to assist with understanding ideas and writing.

NotebookLM is particularly useful for students, academics, writers, and teachers.

The app has a familiar design, similar to Google Keep, and is intuitive to use.

NotebookLM features a left-side resources panel and a right-side notes and AI chat space.

It processes information from various sources like PDFs, Google Docs, and web text.

Automatic content analysis provides a digestible summary of uploaded documents or links.

The app suggests topics for exploration after analyzing content.

Users can interact with NotebookLM to discuss uploaded study materials or research documents.

NotebookLM stays grounded in the documents provided, focusing on user-uploaded content.

It can organize notes into structured documents like study guides or project outlines.

Users can command NotebookLM to format notes into specific outputs like newsletters or scripts.

The app provides reliable responses with citations from user documents for accuracy.

NotebookLM helps find specific information or passages within long documents.

It suggests follow-up questions to encourage deeper exploration of topics.

The app is suitable for collaborative work and can be shared with others for group projects or study sessions.

NotebookLM is also a helpful tool for teachers preparing class resources and evaluating student work.

The app is currently only available in the U.S. for users who are 18 and older.

NotebookLM lacks features like adding images, tasks, or formatting texts.

Importing sources can be tedious as there's no direct web import via browser extension.

Despite its limitations, NotebookLM is free to use and can be accessed with a VPN outside the U.S.