Understanding Google’s NotebookLM
We're excited to share that NotebookLM, an AI tool with University data protection, is now available to all University personnel.
What is NotebookLM?
NotebookLM is a virtual notebook that uses a large language model to help you understand and synthesize documents (and many other source types). Upload your sources, and NotebookLM can generate a summary, outline key themes, and even make a podcast discussing the material.
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| NotebookLM home page |
NotebookLM Basics
Unlike Google Gemini (and other “chat” AI tools), NotebookLM takes a little setup to begin using. The first step is to create a “Notebook” of sources, or reference materials, that the AI will use to generate responses to your questions. Sources can be websites, PDFs, videos, docs, slides, pasted in text, and more. You can also ask Google to help you “discover” relevant sources.
After you’ve added some sources to your Notebook, you can begin asking NotebookLM questions in a similar fashion to a chatbot. In addition to the chat interface, NotebookLM has the ability to create a variety of content formats in response. For example, a video overview, a podcast, an FAQ document, a study guide, a timeline, or a mind map.
NotebookLM’s responses will be based solely on the references you provide. If it cannot do what you ask with the references you provided, it will respond indicating as much.
UMN personnel: to gain access, fill out the opt-in form, then visit notebooklm.google.com
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| An example of a NotebookLM "Notebook". |
How is NotebookLM different from Gemini?
- Needs you to first add reference information
- Has less hallucinations
- Has less creativity
- Tells you when information isn’t included in your sources
- Accepts massive amounts of sources for reference
- Cites its sources, in a clickable format to locate the exact information used
- Generates content in more varied formats
- Is not approved for personal health information at the University. (more information on UMN data usage)
- Allows sharing of Notebooks with other University colleagues.
Ideas for using NotebookLM:
(Always be mindful that AI’s summaries and responses might miss nuance, context, or make erroneous connections. Doublecheck responses.)
User manual knowledge base: upload PDFs of user manuals, documentation, and websites for your equipment or systems. You can then ask the Notebook natural language questions and get pointed to the relevant sections of the manuals.
Self learning on a complex topic: NotebookLM can help summarize, simplify, and find themes from different sources you've uploaded, which is handy when you're trying to piece together a basic understanding from a variety of verbose sources. NotebookLM can generate an overview podcast, which is an interesting way to start getting immersed in a complex topic.
New team member onboarding: Add team documentation to a Notebook and share it with a new hire. They can then ask specific questions about policies, processes, projects as their questions arise.
Meeting notes repository: A Notebook filled with recent meeting notes could be handy for finding information when you aren’t sure when or which meeting it was discussed in. You can search across months of meeting notes using conversational queries.
Language resource: A cool usage of NotebookLM I heard recently involved the user uploading a family member’s travel itinerary, which for whatever reason, was written in Czech. The user was then able to use the Notebook to ask for a summary and details about the itinerary (with both the questions and responses in English).
Extension's AI Principles
We encourage you to familiarize yourself with Extension’s AI Principles (Intranet login required), which are designed to foster a responsible and innovative environment for AI use in Extension. The principles build off the University's guidelines while recognizing Extension's unique context. In a nutshell, the principles are:
- Protecting sensitive information
- Maintaining credibility
- Crediting AI
- Individual choice and responsibility
- Environmental responsibility
- Continuous learning
We are excited about the possibilities NotebookLM brings to our work and look forward to seeing how it helps you go about your Extension work. Stay tuned for more updates and opportunities to learn and engage with generative AI!
Article by Amy Baker, Extension Learning Technologies, amy@umn.edu.
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