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NotebookLM's automatically generated podcasts are surprisingly effective

simonwillison.net

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Re: NotebookLM's automatically generated podcasts are surprisingly effective

#151

am I the only one surprised by by how much the example sounds so much like the "Money Stuff" Podcast? E.g. the male host going low with his voice and the female host using a more informal speech pattern. I wonder if it's just a perception thing.

I think it's just a common format for podcasts. Sounds exactly like 'No Stupid Questions' to me.

Re: NotebookLM's automatically generated podcasts are surprisingly effective

#152

I don’t think this is all that impressive, the generated podcast is pretty shallow - lots of ‘whoa meta’ and the word ‘like’ thrown into every sentence. Yes, it will generate a middle-of-the-road waffling podcast, but not one with any real depth.

It’s incredible how high our expectations have become which really is a testament to the rapid development of AI.

Right?! We call this goalpost moving now, but it is not a new phenomena.

> It is interesting that nowadays, practically no one feels that sense of awe any longer - even when computers perform operations that are incredibly more sophisticated than those which sent thrills down spines in the early days. The once-exciting phrase "Giant Electronic Brain" remains only as a sort of "camp" cliché, a ridiculous vestige of the era of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. It is a bit sad that we become blasé so quickly.

> There is a related "Theorem" about progress in AI: once some mental function is programmed, people soon cease to consider it as an essential ingredient of "real thinking". The ineluctable core of intelligence is always in that next thing which hasn't yet been programmed. This "Theorem" was first proposed to me by Larry Tesler, so I call it Tesler's Theorem: "Al is whatever hasn't been done yet."

This quote is from the 80s, from GEB by Douglas Hofstadter.

(and btw, I just took a grainy, poorly-lit picture from the book, and could automagically select the text from it, since I couldn't find the quote online. Imagine that tech in the 80s. Hell, it was bad even in the 2000s, with OCR being hit and miss for a long time. Now it "just works".)

Re: NotebookLM's automatically generated podcasts are surprisingly effective

#153

NotebookLM's is incredibly good at generating the affect and structure of a quality podcast. This is in-line with all art, music, and video created by LMM at the moment. They are imitating a structure and affect, the quality of the content is largely irrelevant. I think the interesting thing is that most people don't really care, and AI is not to blame for that. Most books published today have the affect of a book, b…

I think and hope that you're wrong. There's always been cheese, and there's a lot of it now. But there is still a market for top-notch insight. For example, Perun. This guy delivers an hourlong presentation on (mostly) the Ukraine-Russia war and its pure quality. Insights, humour, excellent delivery, from what seems to be a military-focused economist/analyst/consultant. We're a while away from some bot taking this ki…

Pleased to see Perun being mentioned on HN.

Re: NotebookLM's automatically generated podcasts are surprisingly effective

#155

NotebookLM's is incredibly good at generating the affect and structure of a quality podcast. This is in-line with all art, music, and video created by LMM at the moment. They are imitating a structure and affect, the quality of the content is largely irrelevant. I think the interesting thing is that most people don't really care, and AI is not to blame for that. Most books published today have the affect of a book, b…

Thank you for saying that, it was always a background task thought, but now that you put it in words. This. The churn shall burn..

Re: NotebookLM's automatically generated podcasts are surprisingly effective

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different strokes for different folks... We all seek different kinds of quality; I don't find Peruns videos to have any quality except volume. He reads bullet points he has prepared, and makes predictable dad jokes in monotone, re-uses and reruns the same points, icons, slides, etc. Just personally, I find it really samey and some of the reporting has been delayed so much it's entirely detached from the ground by the…

I think the main problem with Peruns' videos are that they are videos. I run a little program on my home-lab that turns them into podcasts and I find that I enjoy them far more because I need to be less engaged with a podcast to still find them enjoyable. (Also, I gave up on being up to date with Ukraine situation, since up to date information is almost always wrong. I am happy to be a week or a 14 days behind if the…

Just turn off the screen with youtube video playing and there's no difference from a podcast?

I listen to Perun at the gym every week, audio only.

Re: NotebookLM's automatically generated podcasts are surprisingly effective

#159
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't read an AI-generated book (except maybe once as a curiosity), but I would definitely listen to AI-generated music if it were good enough. Reading a book is a time investment so I want it to convey the thoughts of another human being, otherwise it would feel like wasting my time. Listening to music, on the other hand, often is something that I do while I exercise, to keep a brisk pace and not get bored. As…

There's background sounds and there's music. Music can communicate as much as the written word. I've listened to algorithmically generated bloop-blops and it's fine for background sound, but if it can't touch my heart it's not really music to me.

To me, as soon as I know it was fully generated it looses it's magic. It doesn't matter how good it is.

I see the same with potteries. A factory made pot cannot have more value than a hand made pot with the signature of a human. This touches the very fabric of society. Hard to explain.

Re: NotebookLM's automatically generated podcasts are surprisingly effective

#160
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think and hope that you're wrong. There's always been cheese, and there's a lot of it now. But there is still a market for top-notch insight. For example, Perun. This guy delivers an hourlong presentation on (mostly) the Ukraine-Russia war and its pure quality. Insights, humour, excellent delivery, from what seems to be a military-focused economist/analyst/consultant. We're a while away from some bot taking this ki…

This is true but the quality frontier is not a single bar. For mainstream content the bar is high. For super-niche content, I wouldn’t be surprised if NotebookLM already competes with the existing pods. This will be the dynamic of generated art as it improves; the ease of use will benefit creators at the fringe. I bet we see a successful Harry Potter fanfic fully generated before we see a AAA Avengers movie or simila…

It's the complete opposite. Unless your definition of mainstream includes stuff like this deep drive into Russia/Ukraine, in which case I think you're misunderstanding "mainstream".
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