Google launches NotebookLM, a powerful AI writing assistant

Google has announced the official launch of NotebookLM, an AI-powered writing assistant that can help you organize, summarize, and improve your notes. The service, which was previously known as Project Tailwind, has undergone several performance upgrades and feature additions since its experimental debut at I/O 2023.

What is NotebookLM and how does it work?

NotebookLM is a web-based tool that lets you upload your notes or documents and get a summary of what you wrote, along with some questions to test your comprehension. You can also chat with the AI assistant and ask it to explain, define, or suggest anything related to your notes. The AI assistant will scan your sources and provide relevant information, citations, and feedback.

The service is powered by Gemini Pro, Google’s latest and most advanced AI model, which can handle a wide range of natural language tasks. Google claims that Gemini Pro can enhance NotebookLM’s reasoning skills and document understanding, making it a more reliable and helpful writing assistant.

What are the new features of NotebookLM?

Google has added 15 new features to NotebookLM based on the feedback from its five-month testing period. Some of the highlight features are:

• A new noteboard space where you can pin quotes or excerpts from your notes or the AI chat for easy access and reference.
• A direct link to the source when you click on a citation in the AI’s response, allowing you to see the quote in its original context.
• Two actions when you highlight text in the source: summarize the text into a separate note or define words or phrases.
• A wider array of follow-up actions at the bottom of the AI’s response, such as suggestions on how to improve your writing, related ideas to add to your content, or specific formats to shape your content into an email, a script, a presentation, etc.
• An increased word count limit for sources, which can now be up to 200,000 words in total.
• The ability to share your notebooks with others and collaborate on them like Google Docs.
• Support for PDF files as sources.
• You can find the full list of features on Google’s Help website.

What’s coming next for NotebookLM?

Google is not done with improving NotebookLM. The company has announced that it will roll out seven more features in the week of December 11. These include:

• A Critique function where you can ask the AI for constructive feedback on your writing.
• A Combine function where you can merge all your notes into one page.
• A Translate function where you can translate your notes or the AI’s response into another language.
• A Voice function where you can speak to the AI instead of typing.
• A Synthesize function where you can ask the AI to generate a summary or a question from multiple sources.
• A Compare function where you can compare your notes or the AI’s response with another source or document.
• A Customize function where you can adjust the tone, style, and level of detail of the AI’s response.

How to use NotebookLM and where to find it?

NotebookLM is currently available only in the United States and only for users who are 18 years or older. You can access it from any desktop or mobile device by visiting notebooklm.google.com. You will see some examples of how to use the service and how to interact with the AI assistant. You can also create your own notebooks and upload your sources or documents.

Note that NotebookLM is still considered an experimental technology by Google, so it may not always produce perfect results. Google also warns that the service may not respect your privacy or intellectual property rights, and that you should not use it for sensitive or personal information.

Google has not revealed any plans for an international release of NotebookLM, but we have reached out to them for more information. We will update this story when we hear back from them.

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