Google introduces new personalized AI app ‘NotebookLM’

Google says it wants to reimagine what note-taking software could look like if it were designed from the ground up using a powerful language model. The new AI is only available for Google Docs at the moment, but the search giant promises to add new formats soon. NotebookLM is also only available to users in the US by signing up to a Google Labs waiting list.

While introducing the new notes app in a blog post, Google wrote, “NotebookLM is an experimental product designed to use the power and promise of language models paired with your existing content to gain critical insights, faster. Think of it as a virtual research assistant that can summarize facts, explain complex ideas, and brainstorm new connections — all based on the sources you select.”

Why is NotebookLM different from other AI apps? 

With NotebookLM, Google aims to solve, or at least mitigate, the biggest problem associated with artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT and Bard: ‘hallucination’, the phenomenon where a large language model (LLM) generates incorrect information and confidently presents it as the correct answer.

Google uses a process called ‘source-grounding’, which the company claims effectively creates a personalised AI that knows the information relevant to you. Source-grounding allows the language model to analyse your notes and sources for answers. However, Google warns against blindly trusting its application and urges users to check the AI’s answers against the original source material.

What can NotebookLM do? 

Google explains that NotebookLM is capable of handling three major tasks mainly: 

1) Generate summary: 

Users will able to generate a summary along with key topics and questions after adding a Google Doc into NotebookLM. 

2) Ask questions based on source material: 

Users can ask questions about the documents they have uploaded to NotebookLM. For example, a writer working on a biography could upload research notes and ask a question such as: “Summarize all the times Houdini and Conan Doyle interacted.”

3) Generate new ideas: 

Users will be able to generate new ideas using the uploaded documents in NotebookLM. For example, a content creator could upload ideas for a new video and ask the AI to generate a script.

Updated: 13 Jul 2023, 09:53 AM IST