AInsights: Your executive-level insights making sense of the latest in generative AI…

I’m not going to lie, when I first heard about the Google Notebook, officially named NotebookLM, it’s new AI pilot program, I thought that it would be limited to use by students and educators. I’ve since changed my mind. You could say I shifted my mindset.

So what is NotebookLM? Is it just another tool like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Meta.ai, or Claude?

Yes and no.

NotebookLM is powered by Google’s Gemini Pro language model. But it’s not just focused on pre-existing language models per se. It’s a dedicated workspace trained on specific material users upload to build an intelligent assistant. It’s a bit like OpenAI’s GPTs, but designed specifically as a research and note-taking assistant.

Said another way, Google’s NotebookLM organizes, analyzes, and synthesizes information from specific sources they provide. It combines the power of large language models with user-provided content to create a personalized research assistant. It allows users to upload and interact with multiple sources of information, creating a tailored knowledge base for each project or “notebook.”

Users can upload up to 50 sources per notebook, including Google Docs, Google Slides, PDFs, website URLs, and text files. Each source can be up to 500,000 words long, allowing for extensive research materials.

NotebookLM creates overviews, summaries, key topics, and suggested questions based on the uploaded documents. It can also analyze charts, images, and diagrams within the sources.

Users can ask questions about their sources, and NotebookLM provides answers with inline citations, linking directly to relevant sections of the original documents (a bit of a nod to Perplexity.ai).

NotebookLM allows users to create, save, and organize notes. It can transform selected notes into outlines, table of contents, study guides, or summaries.

Notebooks can be shared with team members, enabling collaborative research and analysis.

NOW HERE’S SOMETHING WILD…

NotebookLM can even generate podcast-style discussions about the content, providing an audio summary of the information. It emulates a conversation between two hosts and is, if you didn’t pick up on nuances along the way, convincing…and fun!

More on this in a bit…

AInsights

This newsletter is all about understanding the impact of AI trends for busy executives. This one is a bit different as it serves as a personal research assistant, which could bridge the larger work done by actual research organizations and the executives who benefit from their work. NotebookLM doesn’t replace these groups by any stretch of the imagination. But it does help to provoke and enlighten executives to better work with others across their teams and organization.

NotebookLM acts as a virtual research assistant, helping executives and their teams quickly synthesize information from multiple sources. This can significantly reduce the time spent on research and analysis.

Notebooks can be shared with team members, enabling collaborative research and analysis.

But let’s get into some specific applications that where NotebookLM can shine.

Strategic Planning: Executives can use NotebookLM to consolidate market research, competitor analysis, and internal reports to inform strategic decision-making.

Project Management: Teams can create notebooks for specific projects, keeping all relevant documents, notes, and discussions in one place.

Meeting Preparation: NotebookLM can help executives quickly summarize key points from multiple documents, ensuring they are well-prepared for important meetings.

Trend Analysis: By uploading various industry reports and news articles, executives can use NotebookLM to identify emerging trends and patterns in their sector.

Audio Summaries: The new Audio Overview feature generates podcast-style discussions about the content in the notebook to unreal levels. Seriously.

I fed it parts of the MindShift manuscript to see what it could do. And wow. Just wow. I let it cycle five different times, and each were impressive and entertaining. I had a difficult time choosing which to keep.

Take 1

Take 2

 

I could imagine though, in any research project, creating fun audio content for stakeholders to consume beyond decks, emails, meetings, or reports.

As Google’s audio podcast summaries surmised from Mindshift, “Every step outside your comfort zone is a step toward growth.”

Indeed. Imagine the possibilities.

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