Google recently launched NotebookLM, its AI research assistant that analyzes whatever articles you upload to it and produces an audio file that is a stunningly realistic conversation that sounds just like two well-seasoned podcast hosts discussing your articles. We’re actually slightly blown away, and a little bit scared, by how good it sounds – you really can’t tell that the resulting ‘show’ isn’t a real recording of two people talking! If you don't believe us, have a listen to this audio conversation that is generated from a single blog post, and uploaded to YouTube.

Not only does NotebookLM do a great job of understanding what your article is about, but it can also extrapolate points and branch out into other areas without getting anything wrong or out of context (at least in our tests so far). As with all artificial intelligence, it does come with a disclaimer to say it “may still sometimes give inaccurate responses, so you may want to confirm any facts independently”, but to say we’re impressed with how it has performed so far is an understatement. The best way to understand how NotebookLM works is to have a go yourself, so here we’ll show you how it works.

Creating your podcast

FAQs

Can you change the speakers' voices?

Not at the moment. You currently have a man and a woman discussing your subject with American accents. We’d imagine that in the future more options will be available.

Can you set the length of the conversation?

Again, no, although the more sources you add the longer the conversation gets.

Can I edit the audio or change things?

Currently, no. Obviously, the file NotebookLM produces is just a standard WAV audio file, so you can load it into an audio editor, like Audacity, and do whatever you want to it.

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