Google’s NotebookLM has been getting a lot of attention. You upload your sources (articles, Youtube videos, URLs, text documents, audio files) and NotebookLM can create a podcast based on the library you’ve created.
I thought I’d experiment with this a bit. I uploaded a variety of articles on copyright and AI and hit “go.” I didn’t give NotebookLM the subject or any prompts. It figured out the topic (correctly) and created the 11 minute podcast embedded below.
A few observations:
First, the speaker voices are natural and realistic – they interact fluidly, have natural intonation and use varied speech patterns.
Second, the content quality is very high – the podcast correctly highlights Google Books as the leading case on the issue and outlines the implications of the case for and against fair use.
It also discusses the New York Times v. Microsoft/OpenAI case in detail, and focuses on the fact that the NYT was able to force ChatGPT to regurgitate verbatim or near verbatim NYT content.
The podcast goes on to discuss StabilityAI, the four fair use factors (as applied) and the larger consequences of LLMs on the copyright system.
I downloaded the podcast and embedded it below, but I could just as easily have provided a link to the podcast in NotebookLM.