How to Use NotebookLM (Google's New AI Tool)

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Published 2024-02-15
Google's NotebookLM is way more than notetaking, writing, or organizational tool. It's an AI collaborator, grounded in your data with your unique view of the world.

In this tutorial, I'll give you a tour of the main functionalities, demonstrate concrete use cases such as making sense of meeting notes or writing an article, and cover the current limitations.

Visit notebooklm.google.com/ to sign up for a free NotebookLM account using your Google login (You must be at least 18 years of age, based in the U.S., and Workspace users must have “Experimental apps enabled” by an administrator)

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TECHNICAL NOTES
[08:37]: NotebookLM isn’t actually “trained” on your data. The model is pre-trained, and the software just shuttles your inputs into its context window temporarily so it can answer factually based on that information. Once you end your session, the information you entered is wiped from the model's memory so your data is secure.

[13:30]: NotebookLM can answer specific questions, but holistic questions (such as "Give me an outline of the entire book, in order") are harder, because the model can’t take in the entire document at once; it can only see the most relevant passages for a given query.

CHAPTERS
00:00 - 01:20 Intro
01:21 - 09:04 Getting started
09:06 - 14:52 Use cases for understanding
14:53 - 21:12 Use cases for writing
21:13 - 23:12 Using Readwise with NotebookLM
23:13 - 24:23 Limitations
24:24 - 25:23 Conclusion
25:24 - 25:47 Blooper

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All Comments (21)
  • @HaiLeQuang
    I love this guy, No clickbait. no sudden scene changes with flashy color. Just pure gold information content. Thanks for your good honest work
  • this is the review , we want. no youtube baits , no redundant talk , just pure information and talk to archive goal of video. Brother , you did geat job. love it. also google did it wonderful. private authorative info fed in 1 secound and that A.I. is in our hand is amazing. we can lean from exact book with 100% surity is amazing.
  • As a 66 year old dev, if you take 30 years from me I would be creating my own NotebookLM youtube channel. This is the other half of AI, it's massive. I'm usuning it to learn mandarin and feel like a 15 year old again, day by day it gets better
  • @theloniousMac
    Speaking of IT, I just took Notebook LM and created a notebook specifically for all my notes and information on SYNOLOGY NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE device. I got data from PDFs, my own notes, tons of video and put it all into sources in the Notebook. It took me maybe an hour. Then I sat back and started asking NotebookLM questions about Synology devices and it just hit homerun after homerun with the correct answer. It corrected me where my knowledge of faulty. It provided me with things I didn't know. Where I am not specifically providing information, it seems to be coming up with reasoned answers. I called my Notebook Synology Consultant because it's like having a high paid Synology Consultant at my beck and call. I'm working on a book about politics in Star Trek. Suddenly this just got a whole lot easier. I hope Google doesn't toss this out. There is an incredible amount of potential here.
  • @MH-kj9hh
    "I don't know why I always say 'please'" - there actually was some research published last year which showed using 'please' and being polite improved performance on benchmarks. It kinda makes sense, in the training material it is going to see people asking questions and it is also going to see that polite requests tend to get more/better responses from others.
  • @iDinho__
    This is such a gamechanger for research papers omg. Research work literally is the main task and is getting accelerated so much with the citation feature - amazing 😂
  • @JH-no8sy
    I started using this before it could create study guides, and I’ve been enjoying it a lot. So glad to see it here!
  • @ProductivePM
    Who better than Tiago Forte to present a breakthrough technology for PKM and writing. Thank you, Tiago, for bringing this to our attention and I look forward to exploring this technology.
  • @monochromios
    I have tried it with some work on Analytical Philosophy of History I am into currently: it is outstanding. It will save me days of summarization, contextualizing, connections, examination of sources. Thank you so much for sharing.
  • @EdHohlbein
    Fantastic video! Appreciate the specific use cases you shared. I was struggling with how I might use NotebookLM and you helped me figure it out. Thank you! 👍👏
  • @TomParish
    This overview rocks! Practical and a delight to follow along and learn. I thought I had a handle on. Google Notebook, now I realize I can do SO MUCH more with Readwise - which I already use. I'm pumped.
  • @nopenope2632
    One of the aspects of this tool made me think of the old chestnut "the more things change the more they stay the same", particularly in regards to the letter he had it compose to the IT worker. Eventually this tech will become ubiquitous, and at that time having AI compose an email and site 10+ sources will be utilized by all parties involved in the communication loop, which would be more appropriate in a dynamic other than "Boss/Employee". Given the AI on each side can offer up as many citations as the other can, it would in essence devolve into an automated bandying about of AI quips and quotes between each other, rather like watching two people have their droids compete against the other to ascertain whom will assert absolute dominance. At that point, people will will have to resort back to the things that they hold within their own memory and consciousness as the blocks upon which they would shape and build their own thoughts.
  • @maks_st
    Incredible! The world is literally changing by day. Thank you for highlighting this tool for us, Tiago!
  • Can’t wait to try this out. Looks fantastic gets past the problem of the kind of generic response and generalised answers or having to put everything into a document and uploading it each time.
  • @BigSaaSsolutions
    I've been looking for this kind of program for awhile. Thank you Tiago
  • @alaaji2
    I was using NotebookLM casually but you’ve really opened up some different possibilities for me and explained it clearly. Thank you so much!
  • @MissNulis
    Wow... A very smart move to go into this direction. People who use note-taking apps are usually diligent/smart/educated people. It will train Google AI capability into different quality level. It captures well-thought writings and picks the brain of smart people. Usually when we use current AI apps, we just take from the AI. But, with note taking, we actually give.
  • Thanks Tiago, this is awesome. I have been looking for an note-taking app like this. I have to check this out!
  • @cstoomey
    Tiago you are so well read sir. You have read thousands of amazing books. Thank you for making this video.
  • @MexieMex
    If it was from anybody other than Google I'd be very interested. Due to the frequency of them killing off tools just on a whim, I'm not going to invest my time on something that likely won't exist right when I need it.