- Google has updated notebooklm one more time
- It can now search the web and find sources for you
- It’s easier than ever to create an AI -Podcast
Google has updated notebooklm, its practical learning tool and the AI podcast creator, so it’s easier than ever to add sources. Now you can “search the web” for information sources that it turns into an AI podcast, mind map, or which it can answer questions about.
NoteBooklm is designed to help you learn something by breaking down large amounts of information into easily accessible reports and podcasts.
However, it does not require a genius to realize that its podcasts are so good that they could easily replace real podcast hosts talking about literally any topic, and this is where the new feature of Google leaves me in a bit of a moral quan.
List your sources
As I run a Tai Chi Podcast, I decided to try the new feature by asking Notebooklm to see what sources it would find about Tai Chi and I was quite surprised by the articles it found.
There were some academic articles about Tai Chi in there, which I would expect, along with articles from various Tai Chi sites, but also a reddit discussion that offers different perspectives on Tai Chis Spirituality and a YouTube video.
Notebooklm takes all these sources and produces different media for you, including a sound overview (it’s basically a podcast) that takes a deep dive in your topic.
It made me consider whether all these article writers and Reddit commentators were glad I used their thoughts as fuel for an AI-generated podcast.
Credit where it owes
It’s not like Google has added new skills to notebooklm – you could always add any source you wanted – but at least you had to add it manually.
To make it actively scouring on the web to find a curated list of sources for you, without really asking permission from any of these sources and then transforming them into other types of media, feels a bit questionable.
If you use notebooklm clean as intended – ie. Learning about a topic, I do not see a problem, but if these AI podcasts, which are based on the work of others, for example, are used in other ways, perhaps as income -generating podcasts, it does not always feel justified.
