During the May 2023 I/O event, Google showcased an “AI-centered notebook” initially named Project Tailwind. NotebookLM, now released widely in the US, is powered by Gemini Pro, similar to Bard.
Since its early access launch in July, Google has engaged with knowledge workers, creators, students, and educators to understand how they utilize NotebookLM. Users appreciate features like auto-generated summaries and suggested follow-up questions, which facilitate understanding complex texts and making connections across multiple documents.
Gemini Pro’s focus lies in document comprehension and reasoning, although PaLM 2 and other models are also utilized.
The current launch of NotebookLM brings about a dozen new features in the following weeks. A “Noteboard” above the chat box, utilizing a card-based grid UI, allows users to save NotebookLM responses, excerpts from sources, and personal notes. Users can select multiple notes to instruct NotebookLM to summarize, combine into a single note, create outlines, study guides, or broader documents like email newsletters or marketing plans. Additionally, there’s a shortcut to export content to Google Docs.
Furthermore, NotebookLM will suggest actions dynamically based on ongoing activities:
- When users highlight a passage in a source, NotebookLM offers to summarize the text into a new note or assist in understanding technical language or complex ideas.
- While writing a note, NotebookLM provides tools to refine prose and suggests related ideas from sources based on the user’s recent content.
NotebookLM now enables users to select specific sources from the sidebar for focused interactions and increases the per-source notebook limit to 100. Various usability enhancements such as hiding the source and swiftly navigating from a citation to the source are set to roll out in the upcoming weeks following the Gemini Pro launch.
