Ever since Google introduced the “Audio Overviews” feature into its NotebookLM research tool, I have been experimenting with feeding it bodies of text that I did not want to sit and read: stereo instructions, Wikipedia rabbit holes, my Q1 performance review, etc.
With this AI tool, two uncanny valley robot voices are generated to “dive deep” into any documents I upload — adding metaphors, puns, and even casual banter to a summarized conversation. Click play, and what you’ll hear sounds a lot like a stereotypical podcast.
After a few Audio Overviews into my week, I realized I was taking significant time away from listening to podcasts made by real people. And as a podcast producer, this was both alarming and fascinating.
I hate to admit how impressive Audio Overviews is. It organizes topics in segments the way a real podcast would, and it brings in outside context to help you better understand the subject material. I generated a podcast from a Spanish paella recipe I found online, and the hosts made note of the difference in rice texture between paella and risotto, without risotto specifically being mentioned in the recipe.
Like every AI product I’ve ever used, you have to be careful with the accuracy of the content — it does have issues with hallucination. I uploaded notes from a story I was working on, and the AI hosts made up fictional quotes from my sources that were nowhere in my document.
What makes Audio Overviews unique within the AI world is it isn’t necessarily about saving you time. The hosts frequently vamp for a few minutes before getting to the important stuff (that being said, very similar to a real podcast).
Director of product at NotebookLM Simon Tokumine tells me this casual format is by design. Initially, the product was very quick and efficient with information, until the team heard feedback from outside of Google.
“It was only when we started to actually share what we were building with others and get feedback from people who aren’t necessarily obsessed with making every second of their day as efficient as possible, but are more into leaning back and listening in and just kind of going with a wave of information, that we realized there were two different populations we were building for here,” Tokumine said. “And the population we were building for was not necessarily Googlers.”
Watch our full video to see my journey testing out Audio Overviews and my conversations with Simon Tokumine, Vulture podcast critic Nicholas Quah, and our own podcast producers here at The Verge.
Oh, and here’s an Audio Overview of that video.
