Google’s Handy AI Podcast Tool Now Also Makes Entire Videos

NotebookLM transforms long, boring texts into clear explanation videos

screenshot taken by me — new NotebookLM interface

We use generative AI to do all sorts of things, but if there’s one thing the language models behind it are particularly good at, it’s summarizing information or making it more understandable. Every chatbot has a summarizing function, but the podcasting feature of Google’s NotebookLM is unique. Long texts are practically remixed into a podcast in which two artificial yet natural-sounding voices discuss the material.

Now NotebookLM is even more useful with the new Video Overviews. Simply put, this is the video version of Audio Overviews — the official name of the AI podcast feature. You can add text, but Video Overviews can also handle added images, diagrams, quotes, and figures from your document. The result is a kind of automatically generated PowerPoint presentation with a sleek design, complete with a voice-over.

Just like with Audio Overviews, you can customize Video Overviews to your needs by specifying topics you want to emphasize, specifying learning objectives, describing your target audience, and much more.

The interface has also been updated

Video Overviews is initially available in English, but according to Google, it will soon be available in more languages. The feature is located in Studio, the NotebookLM interface from which you unleash the AI on your stack of material. Google has immediately refreshed the Studio’s appearance, giving you four buttons: Audio Overview, Video Overview, Mind Map, and Reports. The latter two allow you to clearly present complex information in an overview, while a report is self-explanatory: the AI then creates a report based on the information.

There are also some new features. For example, you can now have your podcast generated in multiple languages. It’s also possible to have a wealth of information covered by both Audio and Video Overviews, tailored to different purposes. NotebookLM is free to use, but to get the most out of the service, you’ll need a Google AI Pro account.

Example:

I added the above text to a new Notebook and generated a video. Here is the astonishing result: it has added a lot of extra, useful info.

[embed]

References

[embed]What's new in NotebookLM: Video Overviews and an upgraded Studio NotebookLM launches Video Overviews and upgrades to the Studio panel.blog.google