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There’s a lot of talk about how Google NotebookLM can generate an AI podcast or an audio overview of a topic in conversational form using two AI voices. You provide or link to the source material. If you are unfamiliar with NotebookLM, it’s an artificial intelligence research assistant that you can use to assist with learning. It will synthesize multiple sources of information and generate it in different formats like study guides, FAQs and audio overviews. You can read more about it at Five Easy Ways Instructional Designers Can Use NotebookLM.
In this episode, I thought you might like to hear and react to two short audio overviews generated by NotebookLM. A few cautionary notes. If you plan to use NotebookLM, there may be inaccuracies. I don’t know what happens to the content you upload. And Google advises to avoid uploading documents you don’t have the applicable rights to. Certainly, check with your workplace, clients and subject matter experts before uploading anything. The first audio overview concerns designing abstract graphics like diagrams and graphs, so that they can be more easily understood. I uploaded a chapter from my book, Visual Language for Designers.
THE CONTENTS:
- What GoogleLM is and how it works
- How to generate an AI podcast (audio overview)
- You’ll hear two different audio overviews
- My reaction to the audio overviews: were they accurate? What are the pros and cons?
- Type of content that might work best at this stage of AI
- Add your reactions in the Comments below
TIME: 20 minutes
TRANSCRIPT: Download the ELC 085 Transcript: Generating AI Podcasts for Learning
RESOURCES:
Hi Linda,
It is fun to play with. Thanks for your comment. I did a similar experiment just for fun. My son is a full-time songwriter and musician and I used NotebookLM to create a podcast about his lyrics, which are on the band’s website. NotebookLM had some insights that he nor I had ever thought of. It was pretty surprising and in this case, pretty accurate.
Connie
Thank you so much for this podcast! It was so intriguing to me. I’ve tried NotebookLM out quite a few times now (mostly for fun), because it is AI and it’s not to be used lightly. In the hands of professionals concerned with compliance, I think it would be a great tool for presenting drier content in a different and more engaging way (to share general, non proprietary information that has been fact checked).
For fun, I set up a conversation using the tool where the speakers discussed the differences between two movies: a Hitchcock movie (Dial M for Murder) and a Doris Day thriller (Midnight Lace). I have to say, the tool did an incredible job with that little piece of content. It was extremely convincing, and a little scary.
Good to hear from you Joe! You were on Podcast #1. Another good research tool is Standford’s STORM, which I’m playing around with. Your session sounds really interesting.
Best,
Connie
Thanks for this, Connie. Really interesting topic. I can imagine some relevant uses, but definitely would emphasize LOTS of human oversight required. Might be fun to see something like this pumping out some conversational simulations around management topics. I think Percipio is doing something like that, but I haven’t played with that tool as much as some of my peers.
I’m doing a session on AI for some fellow novelists soon and I’m definitely going to play with this for that session!
Again, thanks for another great topic!