Google's NotebookLM and its podcast-like audio overviews have been a surprise hit this year, and today the Google company is starting to roll out a big new feature: the ability to talk to the ai ”hosts” of the overviews.
When the feature is available to you, you can try it out with the new audio overviews. (Won't work with old ones). Here's how: <a target="_blank" href="https://blog.google/technology/google-labs/notebooklm-new-features-december-2024/”>according to a blog post:
Create a new audio overview.
Tap the new Interactive Mode (BETA) button.
While listening, tap “Join.” A host will call you.
Ask your question. Hosts will respond with a personalized response based on their sources.
After you respond, they will resume the original audio overview.
The ability to talk to NotebookLM seems like a potentially useful way to learn more about what you've collected in the app. But Google warns that it's an “experimental feature” and that “hosts may also pause awkwardly before responding or occasionally introduce inaccuracies,” so it may not be a fully polished experience to begin with.
In addition to the interactive audio overviews, Google is introducing a new interface for NotebookLM that organizes things into three areas: a “sources” panel for your information, a “chat” panel for talking to an ai chatbot about the sources and a “studio panel” that allows you to create things like audio summaries and study guides. I think it looks good.
Google also announces a subscription to NotebookLM: NotebookLM Plus. The subscription will give you “five times more audio summaries, notebooks, and fonts per notebook,” allow you to “customize the style and tone of your notebook responses,” allow you to create shared team notebooks, and offer “additional privacy and security . ”says Google. Subscription is available today for businesses, schools and universities, and enterprise organizations and customers. It will be added to Google One ai Premium in “early 2025.”
Google is also launching “Agentspace,” a platform for custom ai agents for businesses. “Agentspace can provide conversational assistance, answer complex questions, make proactive suggestions, and take actions based on your company's unique insights,” Google says. It also has connectors for applications like Microsoft SharePoint, Jira, and ServiceNow.
