Google's AI-powered NotebookLM just got a big upgrade - how to try it (and why you should)
At Google I/O last year, the company unveiled NotebookLM, an AI-powered note-taking, research, and writing assistant. Since then, the AI tool has continued to evolve, most recently being upgraded to Gemini 1.5 Pro. Now it's becoming even more helpful.
On Thursday, Google released several upgrades to NotebookLM, making it accessible to more users worldwide and improving the application's ability to assist users in conducting research.
Also: How to use Google's AI-powered NotebookLM to organize your research
One of NotebookLM's biggest draws is that users can upload their materials into the notebook to get assistance with their content, such as summarizing, answering questions, and even using the AI assistant to generate new content. Now, users can upload Google Slides and web URLs in addition to the previously supported Google Docs, PDFs, and text files.
The option to add URLs is especially noteworthy: When conducting research, you often find sources online that offer more insights on the topic. Now, you can use NotebookLM to answer questions about a web page's content -- or even convert the web page into a guide.
Additionally, NotebookLM now offers inline citations that reference the sources from which the AI pulled its responses. This helps you fact-check the response, which is especially important when using the tool to generate new text.
Because of its upgrade to Gemini 1.5 Pro, which added multimodal capabilities, NotebookLM can create answers based on images, charts, and diagrams in Slides or Docs. In its responses, NotebookLM will include citations for the images so that users can use them as evidence.
Also, the new Notebook Guide feature gives users a high-level summary of all the sources they input, as seen in the image below. This helps work as a sounding board where users can generate other helpful content such as tables of contents, study guides, briefing docs, FAQs, and timelines.
In addition to the new features, Google announced that it was making the upgraded version of NotebookLM available in 200 countries and territories worldwide.
Also: How to sign up for Google Labs - and 5 reasons why you should
You can access NotebookLM either from Google Labs or by visiting the NotebookLM website. Getting started is easy: Create a new notebook, upload your materials, and then work with NotebookLM to perform any of the abovementioned tasks.