NotebookLM Audio Overview
Posted in daily
Tags :Ever since I discovered the Audio Overview feature of NotebookLM on Simon Willison blog last week, I’ve been wanting to play with it.
The result is astonishing. The structure mimics a conversational podcast involving two hosts engaging in dialogue, often with a casual tone. The back-and-forth conversation between the two AI hosts is true to reality.
I couldn’t help but to paste links to my web design studio’s landing page, my weblog about page, LinkedIn profile and University’s profile to see what would be generated.
The transcript is available.
Oh boy was I surprised. It is so over-complimentary, it made me cringe. I was amazed by the conversational tone (despite all the north-american clichés), the overall structure of the episode and how certain nitty gritty details were highlighted.
It was too long and repetitive, but for a first shot out of the blue, I was very surprised. I still need to try to focus the conversation on certain aspects or themes to see how it performs.
Talk about throwing flowers at oneself…
Multinodal nature
I can see how the mutilnodal nature of NotebookLM can be helpful, especially in an academic environment, and I wonder if listening to two hosts speak about a subject can enhance the understanding of the subject, and its memorisation. I’m not sure there is a definitive answer as to whether reading or listening is better for long-term memory, as it depends on personal preferences, the nature of the material, and the context in which learning occurs.
Remembering what we read vs what we listen to doesn’t work the same way. In my personal experience. listening to audiobooks while commuting has stamped emotions and memories throughout town. I often recall a scene or an emotion while in transit, as if I had geolocalised a scene of a book.
We live in interesting times.