How to Use NotebookLM (Google's New AI Tool) by Tiago Forte
Summary of How to Use NotebookLM
NotebookLM Overview: Google’s NotebookLM, using the Gemini AI model, aims to transform note-taking and information management by centralizing various creative processes. It enables seamless organization, conversation-based interactions, and sourcing information from documents for integrated content creation.
Setup and Accessibility: Available in the U.S. for users over 18, NotebookLM organizes data in “notebooks” for specific projects. Users can sign in with a Google account and use Google Drive documents, uploaded PDFs, or pasted text as sources.
Source Management and Contextual AI: Users can select up to 20 documents, with a max of 200,000 words each, enabling interaction with large datasets. NotebookLM summarizes, extracts, and connects information across these documents, creating outlines or synthesizing data based on users’ questions.
Collaborative AI Features: NotebookLM provides a chat-based interface where users can query the AI to generate summaries, outlines, or other document formats, such as FAQs or narrative formats. Pinned responses allow users to save useful insights for ongoing reference.
Dynamic Note Addition: Users can add new notes or documents to an ongoing conversation, making it flexible for incorporating recent or relevant content. Sources remain private and aren’t used to train external models, maintaining confidentiality.
Versatile Applications: The tool is useful for summarizing long texts (e.g., meeting transcripts), drafting proposals, and creating comprehensive project outlines by referencing stored content and citations, adding substantial value to tasks requiring detailed information management.
Writing and Ideation Support: NotebookLM supports writing processes by enabling users to draw on past notes for inspiration, suggest article ideas, or edit drafts. It can assist in rewriting or improving texts based on other documents and offers citations for easy reference.
Export and Integration Limitations: Users are limited to Google Docs or PDFs for sources, with a max of 20 documents. Integrations with other note-taking apps like Evernote or Notion require third-party tools like Readwise. NotebookLM also has issues with math, complex formatting, and very large documents.
Future Potential: NotebookLM aspires to unify reading, research, and writing in a single flow, facilitating creative processes at "the speed of thought." The tool emphasizes security and privacy by keeping user data self-contained and private.
Reflective Question: How could you incorporate a collaborative AI like NotebookLM into the business environment / workflow to enhance productivity and innovation while ensuring your unique insights remain secure?