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NotebookLM Audio Overviews are now available in over 50 languages

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Re: NotebookLM Audio Overviews are now available in over 50 languages

#81

Post by Spooky23 »

ipsum2 wrote: post #6

Do people find NotebookLM useful? For my use case of converting papers into podcasts, the explanations are too general (which misses the important parts of the paper) and contain too much fluff. I suspect that changing the underlying model to Gemini 2.5 Pro would produce better transcripts, but right now there's no way of determining what model is being used.

I used it for a a bootcamp class to study for an exam. I recorded about 50 hours of lecture and Q&A, and was able to generate good Anki cards from it. What was awesome was that I could ask “make a list of all of the topics the instructor thought would be questions on the exam” and it did a great job at that.

The podcast thing is more a novelty to me.

Re: NotebookLM Audio Overviews are now available in over 50 languages

#82

Post by trees101 »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #26
energy123 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For YouTube videos it's hard to beat (1) copy transcript to clipboard (from eg tactiq) (2) paste into LLM chat and ask for summary

Full disclosure, I work for Google opinions are my own etc etc The LLM built into YouTube is one of the few LLM chatbots bolted onto existing apps that I actually find useful. Not just for summaries but questions like "what is the timestamp in this 2 hour video where they talk about _____".

how do we access this?

Re: NotebookLM Audio Overviews are now available in over 50 languages

#83

Post by [deleted] »

Spooky23 wrote: post #80
mikeocool wrote: post #41

NotebookLM podcasts are like a caricature of a real podcast. Every little verbal technique or narrative style that might be used by a normal podcaster in a subtle way is taken to an extreme. The last one I listened to one host would repeat a keyword or phrase the other host had just said for emphasis — except they did incessantly — with multiple words in every sentence for many sentences in a row.

It sounds like an NPR podcast, which have been self parodied for a long time.

[deleted]

Re: NotebookLM Audio Overviews are now available in over 50 languages

#84

Post by davidg707 »

I created a NotebookLM podcast based on a blog post I wrote and played it for my parents. They got very excited thinking that I 'made it' because other people were talking about my work. Then I told them what it really was and they were a little bit disappointed and a little bit amazed.

Re: NotebookLM Audio Overviews are now available in over 50 languages

#86

Post by meta_ai_x »

mikeocool wrote: post #41

NotebookLM podcasts are like a caricature of a real podcast. Every little verbal technique or narrative style that might be used by a normal podcaster in a subtle way is taken to an extreme. The last one I listened to one host would repeat a keyword or phrase the other host had just said for emphasis — except they did incessantly — with multiple words in every sentence for many sentences in a row.

The Google NotebookLM team should take this comment as a badge of honor that they must be doing something right.

HN is the worst place to get product feedback (and I'm sure the NotebookLM team has internal metrics that validates their approach)

Re: NotebookLM Audio Overviews are now available in over 50 languages

#87

Post by Rebelgecko »

jjwiseman wrote: post #60
Rebelgecko wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Full disclosure, I work for Google opinions are my own etc etc The LLM built into YouTube is one of the few LLM chatbots bolted onto existing apps that I actually find useful. Not just for summaries but questions like "what is the timestamp in this 2 hour video where they talk about _____".

"LLM built into YouTube…" The what now? This is the first I've heard of this.

I thought it was for everyone my bad. Turns out except for some educational videos it's just for premium subscribers with certain location/language combos (you can probably guess which...)

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/14110396?hl=en

Re: NotebookLM Audio Overviews are now available in over 50 languages

#88

Post by Rebelgecko »

trees101 wrote: post #82
Rebelgecko wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Full disclosure, I work for Google opinions are my own etc etc The LLM built into YouTube is one of the few LLM chatbots bolted onto existing apps that I actually find useful. Not just for summaries but questions like "what is the timestamp in this 2 hour video where they talk about _____".

how do we access this?

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/14110396

If you're not already a premium subscriber you may want to stick with other tools. I didn't mean to unintentionally advertise YouTube Premium:)

Re: NotebookLM Audio Overviews are now available in over 50 languages

#89

Post by primax »

ipsum2 wrote: post #6

Do people find NotebookLM useful? For my use case of converting papers into podcasts, the explanations are too general (which misses the important parts of the paper) and contain too much fluff. I suspect that changing the underlying model to Gemini 2.5 Pro would produce better transcripts, but right now there's no way of determining what model is being used.

I use it for loading up source materials and notes for a DnD campaign I run. Then I ask it questions when I need off the cuff answers, instead of researching.

It's also good for when I can't think of anything (like a background NPCs name and backstory)

Re: NotebookLM Audio Overviews are now available in over 50 languages

#90

Post by mleonhard »

ljoshua wrote: post #17

NotebookLM audio overviews/podcasts have been an absolute boon for my homeschooled kids. They devour audiobooks and podcasts, and they love learning by listening to these first. Then when we come together for class, we discuss what was covered, and can spend time diving into specifics or doing activities based on the content. It’s super nice to have another option for a learning medium here. To generate them, we’ve s…

> for my homeschooled kids

Learning requires making mistakes. Kids need to learn social skills in low-stakes environments. School is the best environment for this. When a person misses this part of their childhood education, they may struggle to learn these skills later in life.

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