How to Generate an AI Podcast Using Google’s NotebookLM

Two podcasts hosts banter backwards and forwards throughout the remaining episode of their sequence, audibly anxious to share some distressing information with listeners. “We have 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—a fascinating, albeit deceptive, instance of Google’s NotebookLM instrument, 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 out to be self-aware. Nonetheless, many customers within the tech press, on TikTok, and elsewhere are praising the convincing AI podcasts, generated by uploaded paperwork with the Audio Overviews characteristic.

“The magic of the instrument is that individuals get to take heed to one thing that they ordinarily wouldn’t have the ability to simply discover on YouTube or an current podcast,” says Raiza Martin, who leads the NotebookLM staff inside Google Labs. Martin mentions lately inputting a 100-slide deck on commercialization into the instrument and listening to the 8-minute podcast abstract as she multitasked.

First launched final yr, NotebookLM is a web based analysis assistant with options widespread for AI software program instruments, like doc summarization. Nevertheless 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 made from Goldman Sachs data dumps, and testing the instrument’s limitations through stunts, like simply repeatedly importing the phrases “poop” and “fart.” Nonetheless confused? Right here’s what it’s essential know.

Producing That AI Podcast

Audio Overviews are a enjoyable AI characteristic to check out, as a result of they do not price the consumer something—all you want is a Google login. Begin by signing into your private account and visiting the NotebookLM website. 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 must be recordsdata saved to your laptop. Google Docs and Slides are easy to import. It’s also possible to add web sites and YouTube movies, retaining 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 should be public.

After you’ve dropped in all your hyperlinks and paperwork, you’ll need to open up the Pocket book information out there within the backside proper nook of the display. Discover the Audio Overview part and click on the Generate button. Subsequent, you’ll must train some endurance, as a result of it might take a couple of minutes to load, relying on how a lot supply materials you’re utilizing.

After the instrument generates the AI podcast, you possibly can create a sharable hyperlink to the audio or just obtain the file. Moreover, you have got 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 complicated technical subjects, generate recordsdata that neatly summarize dense analysis papers, and produce “podcasts” about their private well being and health routines. Which poses an vital query: Ought to you utilize NotebookLM to crank by your most private recordsdata?

The summaries generated from NotebookLM are, based on Google spokesperson Justin Burr, “fully grounded within the supply materials {that a} consumer uploads. That means, your private information isn’t used to coach NotebookLM, so any personal or delicate info you have got in your sources will keep personal, 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 multi-billion greenback advert enterprise. For now! For now.