Two podcasts hosts banter forwards and backwards through the closing episode of their sequence, audibly anxious to share some distressing information with listeners. “We had been, uh, knowledgeable by the present’s producers that we’re not human,” a male-sounding voice stammers out, mid-existential disaster. The dialog between the bot and his female-sounding cohost solely will get extra uncomfortable after that—an enticing, albeit deceptive, instance of Google’s NotebookLM device, and its experimental AI podcasts.
Audio of the dialog went viral on Reddit over the weekend. The unique poster admits within the feedback part that they fed the NotebookLM software program instructions for the AI voices to roleplay this pseudo-freakout. So, no sentience; the AI bots haven’t turn into self-aware. Nonetheless, many customers within the tech press, on TikTok, and elsewhere are praising the convincing AI podcasts, generated by means of uploaded paperwork with the Audio Overviews characteristic.
“The magic of the device is that individuals get to hearken to one thing that they ordinarily wouldn’t be capable of simply discover on YouTube or an current podcast,” says Raiza Martin, who leads the NotebookLM crew inside Google Labs. Martin mentions lately inputting a 100-slide deck on commercialization into the device and listening to the eight-minute podcast abstract as she multitasked.
First launched final yr, NotebookLM is an internet analysis assistant with options widespread for AI software program instruments, like doc summarization. However it’s the Audio Overviews possibility, launched in September, that’s capturing the web’s creativeness. Customers on-line are sharing snippets of their generative AI podcasts constituted of Goldman Sachs knowledge dumps and testing the device’s limitations by means of stunts, like simply repeatedly importing the phrases “poop” and “fart.” Nonetheless confused? Right here’s what you have to know.
Producing That AI Podcast
Audio Overviews are a enjoyable AI characteristic to check out, as a result of they do not price the person something—all you want is a Google login. Begin by signing into your private account and visiting the NotebookLM web site. Click on on the plus arrow that reads New Pocket book to begin importing your supply materials.
Every Pocket book can work with as much as 50 supply paperwork, and these don’t should be recordsdata saved to your pc. Google Docs and Slides are easy to import. You may as well add web sites and YouTube movies, maintaining some caveats in thoughts. Solely the textual content from web sites will probably be analyzed, not the photographs or format, and the story can’t be paywalled. For YouTube, Pocket book will simply use the textual content transcript and the linked movies have to be public.
After you’ve dropped in all your hyperlinks and paperwork, you’ll need to open the Pocket book information obtainable within the backside proper nook of the display. Discover the Audio Overview part and click on the Generate button. Subsequent, you’ll have to train some endurance, as a result of it could take a couple of minutes to load, relying on how a lot supply materials you’re utilizing.
After the device generates the AI podcast, you’ll be able to create a sharable hyperlink to the audio or just obtain the file. Moreover, you might have the choice to regulate its playback velocity, in case you want the podcast to be faster or extra slowed down.
The Way forward for AI Podcasts
The web has gotten artistic with NotebookLM’s audio characteristic, utilizing it to create audio-based “deep dives” into advanced technical subjects, generate recordsdata that neatly summarize dense analysis papers, and produce “podcasts” about their private well being and health routines. Which poses an necessary query: Ought to you utilize NotebookLM to crank by means of your most private recordsdata?
The summaries generated from NotebookLM are, in response to Google spokesperson Justin Burr, “fully grounded within the supply materials {that a} person uploads. That means, your private knowledge is just not used to coach NotebookLM, so any non-public or delicate info you might have in your sources will keep non-public, until you select to share your sources with collaborators.” For now this appears to be one of many upsides of Google slapping an “experimental” label on NotebookLM; to listen to Google’s framing of it, the corporate is simply gathering suggestions on the product proper now, being agile and responsive, tinkering away in a lab, and NotebookLM is indifferent from its multibillion-dollar advert enterprise. For now! For now.
