It aims to build on NotebookLM’s existing features that help you interact with all your notes, transcripts, and other research documents. The app already uses Google’s Gemini ai model to help you summarize your research, and this is sort of an audio version of that.
Google isn't making anything up when it says the ai hosts will “banter” with each other, either. When I tried out Audio Overview for myself, I plugged in one of the sample notebooks about the invention of the light bulb, and the results were… a little odd. During the 10-minute-long overview, the two hosts had a light-hearted discussion about how Thomas Edison wasn't the only person behind the light bulb, and that “in the end, it's really a story about teamwork, about making the dream a reality.”
The hosts could almost Human podcasters could be confused, from the way they emphasized “bam!” when they threw it out in the middle of a sentence, to their use of modern expressions like “messy as hell.” There were still a couple of quirks, as I noticed the ai spelling out certain words and phrases, like “PLUS.” Some of the writing wasn’t exactly what a human would say, either, with one ai host calling platinum “bling bling metal.”
The feature makes learning about research more interesting, but I wonder if the presenters would maintain their light-hearted, somewhat joking tone when discussing more serious topics, like cancer or war. There's also quite a bit of filler during the conversation, so it may not be the best way to quickly and clearly summarize all the information. That's something Google mentions in its announcement, as it says the feature is “not a complete or objective view of a topic, but simply a reflection” of your notes.
Audio Overview also has other limitations, as Google says it can take several minutes to generate a podcast-like conversation and is only available in English. As with many ai tools, it isn't always accurate.
You can test the feature yourself by opening a notebook. in NotebookLMFrom there, select the Notebook tab in the bottom right corner of the screen and then press Burden under the “Audio Overview” heading. I know I’m going to do some research on a random topic just so I can hear what the ai podcasters have to say.
