Google’s AI-powered note-taking app, NotebookLM, is now accessible to all users in the United States who are at least 18 years old. This news was announced by the tech giant on Friday. The experimental app comes with a range of new features and now uses Gemini Pro, Google’s new large language model, to improve document understanding and reasoning.
NotebookLM is designed to automatically generate summaries and propose follow-up questions based on the content of uploaded documents. Unlike generic chatbots, this app focuses solely on the documents it is fed. Google is now enhancing the product to offer a wide array of features that transcend the basic ability to generate summaries and suggest questions.
The app now includes new tools to help users organize their curated notes into structured writing projects. For example, users can select a set of notes and ask NotebookLM to create a script outline, email newsletter, or a draft of a marketing plan. Furthermore, NotebookLM now suggests actions based on the user’s current activity, such as drafting a new note or offering to summarize a passage that has been selected.
Another new feature is the addition of a noteboard space where users can easily pin quotes from the chat or written notes. Google has also made small tweaks to the product, such as automatically creating a new independent note when a user adds a note, taking the user to the original quote in the source when clicking on a citation number, or allowing the user to hide the source if they want to focus exclusively on notetaking.
Google has also expanded the product’s limitations, as notebooks can now include up to 20 sources, and sources can now include up to 200,000 words. These updates come around five months after the initial release of NotebookLM.
Originally known as Project Tailwind, NotebookLM was first unveiled by Google during Google I/O earlier this year and was later renamed. It was positioned as an “AI notebook for everyone,” particularly for students to organize their lecture notes and other documents. While the product shows promise, it remains to be seen whether it will join the ranks of Google’s successful projects or end up in the Google Graveyard like many of the tech giant’s experimental ventures.
In conclusion, Google’s NotebookLM app now has a richer set of features and expanded limitations for users. With the inclusion of the Gemini Pro language model, users can now benefit from better document understanding and reasoning capabilities. However, only time will tell whether NotebookLM will be a successful addition to Google’s suite of tools or become another experimental project that fades away.
