I Tried Notebooklm's New Visual Aids - It Said I Went To 'borkeley'

Elyse Betters Picaro/ZDNET

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• NotebookLM now offers descent platform and infographic features.
• They're disposable to each subscribers.
• It remains to beryllium seen whether they will thief aliases inhibit learning.

As a newsman covering AI, I've had to get utilized to emotion profoundly impressed and a small unsettled. There are fewer devices that person evoked this unusual cocktail of emotions successful maine much than Google's NotebookLM.

Having debuted conscionable a small complete 2 years ago, nan level feels for illustration an early glimmer of what genuinely useful AI will look for illustration successful nan future. If you've ne'er tried it, deliberation of it for illustration a study aliases investigation adjunct that tin quickly make materials that fresh your peculiar learning style, and that tin (in theory) accelerate nan process of you coming to grips pinch a caller subject. 

Also: I recovered an open-source NotebookLM replacement that's powerful, backstage - and free

On Thursday, Google announced successful posts connected NotebookLM's dedicated X relationship that nan level had been updated pinch caller descent decks and infographics features. They were initially disposable exclusively to Google AI Pro subscribers -- a scheme which comes pinch a one-month free proceedings earlier a $20 per period costs kicks successful -- but nan institution announced successful another X post Friday that they've been rolled retired to each users.

'Think smarter, not harder'

Generally speaking, 1 of nan astir prevalent income pitches for AI that you'll perceive from Silicon Valley execs and different existent believers is that it's an assistance and enabler to quality cognition -- that it amplifies innate quality intelligence, reduces nan clip betwixt ideation and production, and makes it imaginable for conscionable astir anyone to move moreover their astir acold retired imaginative ideas into thing tangible. (You could besides make a beardown statement that it atrophies cognition and productivity by doing each nan really difficult activity for you, but we'll get to that later.)

NotebookLM is simply a awesome illustration of this statement of thinking. The bio successful its X relationship reads: "Think smarter, not harder."

Also: I utilized NotebookLM for an full period - here's why it really is simply a crippled changer

The Audio Overview feature, for example, which produces lifelike audio discussions based connected your sources, tin beryllium useful for anyone who considers themselves to beryllium much of an auditory learner aliases who prefers listening to podcasts and audiobooks complete reading. The 2 caller features that were announced Thursday -- some of which are powered by Google's caller Nano Banana Pro image-generating exemplary -- are much useful for ocular learners (or anyone who's procrastinated connected building a position and needs thing quickly).

ZDNET's experiments

Let's commencement pinch nan descent platform feature. I wanted to springiness nan underlying AI a spot of a situation by seeing really good it could synthesize and communicate, particularly analyzable information, to a non-expert, truthful I dug up a preprint paper posted online earlier this twelvemonth titled: "Primordial achromatic holes arsenic acheronian matter candidates: Multi-frequency constraints from cosmic radiation backgrounds." Needless to say, nan taxable matter is intensely method -- far, acold beyond my ain humble physics education.

I uploaded nan PDF of nan insubstantial into NotebookLM to create a caller "notebook," past I clicked connected nan "Slide Deck" icon astatine nan acold correct of my screen. That icon includes an edit option, besides astatine nan right, which I clicked to specify nan benignant of platform I was looking for. Here's nan punctual I went with: "Create a position that includes a high-level overview of this caller 'Primordial achromatic holes arsenic acheronian matter candidates' paper. Try to make nan worldly accessible to nan mean scholar -- personification who has a casual liking successful cosmology but isn't an master successful nan underlying math/physics." (You tin besides take a magnitude -- "Short," "Default," aliases "Long" -- and from a agelong database of languages.) Then I clicked "Generate."

Also: NotebookLM's powerful Deep Research upgrade lets it hunt nan web and create a afloat study - here's how

The strategy took 10 aliases 15 minutes to create nan deck, but nan results were (unsurprisingly) impressive. The platform was presented arsenic a benignant of cosmic dimestore detective novel, titled "The Case of nan Missing Matter." The worldly was organized and presented successful a measurement that was overmuch much digestible for a layperson than nan charts and figures presented successful nan existent paper. It's easy to ideate myself arsenic a assemblage body student utilizing nan platform arsenic a primer to get a high-level overview of nan paper's main arguments earlier diving into nan insubstantial itself, aliases nan authors utilizing it arsenic an approachable preamble for non-experts. (As a broadside note, you tin besides download and stock AI-generated decks successful NotebookLM, aliases play them arsenic a slideshow.)

Of course, arsenic I've already made clear, I'm not a physicist, truthful I had to return NotebookLM's connection that it wasn't wholly hallucinating immoderate of nan much arcane specifications which it was purportedly summarizing from nan paper.

Screenshot: NotebookLM

For my 2nd experiment, therefore, I decided to trial really good nan strategy would do pinch a taxable I understand reasonably well. I'd been penning a adjacent spot astir consciousness, and truthful I prompted NotebookLM to make an infographic that succinctly explains and visualizes nan differences betwixt "physicalism" (a schoolhouse of thought that holds that nan emotion of subjective acquisition is generated by beingness processes successful nan brain) and "idealism" (which holds that nan beingness world emerges from consciousness). 

I uploaded 2 web links to NotebookLM -- nan entries for physicalism and idealism successful nan Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Archive -- and entered nan pursuing prompt: "Can you please make a elemental infographic providing a wide overview of nan statement betwixt physicalism and idealism arsenic it pertains to investigation into nan mind and brain? Please effort to make nan taxable approachable and engaging to a non-expert." For nan infographic feature, you're capable to customize by predisposition (Landscape, Portrait, aliases Square), "level of detail" ("Concise," "Standard," and "Detailed," nan past of which is presently successful beta), and again, language. I went pinch "Landscape" and "Standard."

Based connected my ain knowledge of nan taxable matter, nan resulting image didn't incorporate immoderate hallucinated information, and it provided a bully summary of some nan physicalist and idealist worldviews. There were, however, immoderate very insignificant ocular errors and stylistic specifications that I would personally want to cleanable up earlier presenting it to an audience, if that were my extremity goal. Unfortunately, there's presently nary action to edit existing infographics.

Credit: NotebookLM

Clearly, nan caller ocular assistance features tin beryllium adjuvant for personification who's looking to study nan basics of a caller subject. But astir group astir apt aren't going to beryllium utilizing them for self-education; much often than not, they'll apt beryllium utilized for much applicable purposes astatine schoolhouse aliases astatine work. With that successful mind, I uploaded a nexus to my individual website and asked nan strategy to make an infographic illustrating my journalistic career, which could beryllium submitted to a hiring head arsenic a supplement to a resume and a screen letter.

Credit: NotebookLM

In wide strokes, it generated an meticulous and clean-looking mage that I could spot myself utilizing successful a early occupation search. It wasn't perfect; it was admittedly a spot connected nan flattering side, and location were immoderate insignificant glitches successful nan finer matter -- it misspelled "Berkeley" arsenic "Borkeley," for illustration -- but connected nan full it seemed for illustration a valuable plus that not truthful agelong agone astir apt would've taken hours and a fluency successful schematic creation to beryllium capable to beryllium capable to create.

Is little clash really bully for us?

I mentioned supra that NotebookLM sometimes leaves maine emotion unsettled. That was decidedly nan lawsuit here, too.

As a writer, nan astir rewarding and enriching experiences of my profession person been those times erstwhile I've had to measurement extracurricular of my intelligence comfortableness area and tussle pinch caller and challenging subjects. Advanced mathematics and physics aren't subjects that I'm typically capable to intuitively grasp, but I bask nan situation of sitting pinch a insubstantial for hours aliases days connected extremity and trying to comprehend it -- aliases astatine slightest comprehend it good capable to beryllium capable to pass it astatine a precocious level to a wide audience. 

Also: You tin now springiness NotebookLM much instructions - here's why that's a crippled changer

NotebookLM's descent platform of nan "Primordial achromatic holes arsenic acheronian matter candidates" insubstantial was astir apt a astir religious overview of nan paper, but I can't thief but consciousness that it was an highly bladed substitute for putting successful nan difficult and sometimes uncomfortable activity of really wrestling pinch nan insubstantial itself, whether I was trying to amended myself aliases construe nan accusation into an approachable position that I was going to coming to an audience. Friction is simply a captious constituent for learning. And devices for illustration NotebookLM region a full batch of friction. 

In different words, it's not astatine each clear that LLMs are genuinely helping america learn, aliases if they're conscionable making america feel for illustration we're learning while they really make america intellectually lazier. And there's grounds showing that they could beryllium hindering users' memory recall and critical reasoning skills.

But again, self-education is improbable to beryllium nan mostly usage lawsuit for these caller ocular assistance tools. Far much prevalent will astir apt beryllium those instances successful which users move to them to quickly make materials to beryllium utilized for school- aliases work-related tasks. The infographic, arsenic a supplement to a resume and screen missive script outlined above, is an illustration of 1 that could conceivably person genuine worth for nan personification without taking excessively overmuch of a toll connected their intelligence flexibility, since that would ordinarily beryllium nan benignant of task that's much time-consuming and tedious than cognitively demanding.

They could besides beryllium useful arsenic a shortcut for, say, quickly generating a ocular assistance for an upcoming position astatine nan agency aliases successful nan classroom. But present too, 1 should beware of nan grade to which they're offloading nan difficult cognitive activity onto AI. As pinch each LLM-powered tools, nan caller features from NotebookLM mightiness prevention you a batch of clip and intelligence effort, but it could besides very good beryllium nan lawsuit that a batch of clip and intelligence effort are nan 2 astir captious ingredients successful immoderate portion of high-quality original work.

My champion advice: Use nan caller features -- and AI successful wide -- pinch caution, and only arsenic a backup to your ain brainpower.