Google’s NotebookLM AI podcasts add ‘interactive’ mode for some Q-and-A

Google’s NotebookLM and its podcast-like Audio Overviews have been a shock hit this 12 months, and right this moment Google firm is beginning to roll out an enormous new characteristic: the power to really speak with the AI “hosts” of the overviews.

When the characteristic is on the market to you, you possibly can strive it out with new Audio Overviews. (It received’t work with previous ones.) Here’s how, in response to a weblog publish:

Create a brand new Audio Overview.

Tap the brand new Interactive mode (BETA) button.

While listening, faucet “Join.” A bunch will name on you.

Ask your query. The hosts will reply with a personalised reply based mostly in your sources.

After answering, they’ll resume the unique Audio Overview.

The capacity to really speak with NotebookLM looks as if a probably helpful method to study extra about what you’ve collected within the app. But Google cautions that it’s an “experimental characteristic” and that “hosts can also pause awkwardly earlier than responding or often introduce inaccuracies,” so it might not be a very polished expertise to begin.

In addition to the interactive Audio Overviews, Google is introducing a brand new interface for NotebookLM that organizes issues into three areas: a “sources” panel to your info, a “chat” panel to speak with an AI chatbot concerning the sources, and a “studio” panel that allows you to make issues like Audio Overviews and Study Guides. I feel it seems good.

Google is saying a NotebookLM subscription, too: NotebookLM Plus. The subscription provides you with “5 instances extra Audio Overviews, notebooks, and sources per pocket book,” allow you to “customise the model and tone of your pocket book responses,” allow you to make shared group notebooks, and can provide “extra privateness and safety,” Google says. The subscription is on the market right this moment for companies, faculties and universities, and organizations and enterprise clients. It might be added to Google One AI Premium in “early 2025.”

Google can be launching “Agentspace,” a platform for customized AI brokers for enterprises. “Agentspace can present conversational help, reply advanced questions, make proactive options and take actions based mostly in your firm’s distinctive info,” Google says. It additionally has connectors for apps like Microsoft SharePoint, Jira, and ServiceNow.