I must admit, I didn’t think NotebookLM would be an AI service of interest to me when Google first released it. Built on Gemini models, NotebookLM lets you feed the AI a variety of sources to generate custom reports about a topic.
You can upload documents, PDFs, YouTube videos, and web pages to each notebook, and the AI will do the heavy lifting. It will summarize information, answer questions, and even let you generate podcast-style Audio Overviews. It’s a fascinating tool that could potentially help you study for exams or perform specific research projects for work.
But I’ve come to appreciate one NotebookLM feature that Google has expanded to Gemini: Audio Overviews. These turns notebooks and Deep Research reports into interactive podcasts featuring AI hosts. I’d love to have something similar in ChatGPT to easily digest some of the longer Deep Research reports I create with OpenAI’s chatbot.
It turns out that there are even more reasons to get excited about NotebookLM following Google’s new update for the AI tool. In addition to sharing notebooks with others, a feature Google rolled out recently, the AI app will now let you access curated collections from well-known sources on all sorts of topics that might interest you.
While I’m aware the feature will benefit students and workers in certain fields the most, I already see potential for entertainment here. I’d be interested in turning some of those featured AI notebooks into podcasts to listen to while I run and walk, activities that are part of my daily routines for my ongoing marathon training.
For example, the “Longevity advice from Eric Topol” notebook in Google’s initial lineup of high-quality notebooks is something I’d love to explore. Health and well-being are top priorities for me, and this particular featured NotebookLM creation would suit my interests.
According to Google, “one of the secrets to getting the most out of NotebookLM is assembling high-quality sources to help you explore your interests.” You can continue to do that manually and create notebooks on any topics, but you can also benefit from investigating Google’s list of notebooks.
Premium notebooks available in NotebookLM
Google is working with “respected authors, researchers, publications, and nonprofits around the world to create featured notebooks.” The list of partners includes The Economist and The Atlantic, which will have content available in NotebookLM. Here’s the full list of notebooks Google will provide to NotebookLM users at launch:
How it works
The notebook collections above work just like your custom notebooks. They might be publicly shared collections, but you can still read the original materials and ask questions. Audio Overviews are also available, which is how I’d personally explore these notebooks.
Again, this has huge potential for entertainment purposes. I’ll probably listen to some of these AI podcasts on the go, knowing that the AI is presenting factual information grounded in the various data sources in a specific notebook. The feature builds on the NotebookLM feature that Google launched in June. Since then, more than 140,000 public notebooks have been created.
That said, there’s only one problem with the new “featured notebooks” feature in NotebookLM. I can’t see the section in the mobile app, which is available for free on Android and iPhone. That’s where I’d be most likely to listen to Audio Overviews based on these curated notebooks. Hopefully, an update to the app will make the featured notebooks category available to users. However, if you start one of the featured notebooks in the list above on the web, you’ll see it in the mobile app.
