00:00most of what we consider not taking and
00:02information management these days will
00:04disappear I'm talking organizing your
00:07notes gone formatting your notes no more
00:09searching your notes app and trying to
00:11find that one thing you know you saved
00:13but can't locate that is going to be
00:15gone forever it's a new platform that
00:18Google just released to the public
00:20called notebook LM in this video I'll
00:22show you what notebook LM is how it
00:25works and how you can get started using
00:28what I believe is the best soft ever
00:30created for leveraging AI in Creative
00:35work anything Google created in this
00:37Arena would already be interesting and
00:39worth investigating because it's Google
00:41they have some of our most valuable data
00:43some of the most powerful AI models such
00:46as the recently released Gemini which
00:48notebook LM uses and quite a track
00:50record for you know completely reshaping
00:53our relationship to information but
00:55there's another wrinkle one of the
00:56leaders and creators of the project is
00:58Steven Johnson multip multiple time
01:00best-selling author and the person who
01:02introduced me to tools for thought the
01:05general category that includes second
01:06brains Steven joined a team at Google
01:09labs to create a completely different
01:11kind of AI that we have not seen before
01:14and let me tell you it's the closest one
01:16yet to the vision of a true second brain
01:19I've been pursuing for years let's begin
01:21with a little getting started guide
01:23start by visiting notebook lm. goole.com
01:28and either creating account or you can
01:30sign in with one of your existing uh
01:33Gmail accounts sign up is limited to
01:35users in the US who are 18 years or
01:37older at the time that I'm filming this
01:39video once you're inside this is the
01:41interface you'll see everything in
01:43Notebook LM is organized in notebooks
01:46Each of which is like a single contained
01:48space for all the information related to
01:51a specific project such as a piece of
01:53writing you can create a new notebook by
01:55clicking this plus button right here and
01:57give it a title such as personal
01:59rization this was a online course that I
02:02took recently that I'd like to organize
02:04and distill some of my takeaways this is
02:06the main interface that you'll be using
02:08to interact with notebook LM and there's
02:10three main things to pay attention to
02:13the first one is the column on the left
02:15which is the sources column this is
02:17really the main feature that notebook LM
02:19has which is you can click that plus
02:21button and choose from different
02:24existing documents from which the AI
02:26will draw its knowledge and the three
02:28kinds of sources you can use are Google
02:30drive documents stored in your own
02:33account you can upload PDFs and you can
02:35copy and paste text directly from other
02:38places such as a not taking app for my
02:40example I'll use my Google Drive you can
02:42select up to 20 different documents in
02:46drive and each one of those documents
02:48can have up to 200,000 Words which means
02:51you can interact with up to 4 million
02:54words of text that's a far larger
02:57context window than any other AI tool
02:59out there I'll go ahead and select my
03:01notes on that personal orgaization class
03:03that I took recently and say insert and
03:05I want to show you what happens so first
03:07of all that Source appears here in the
03:09left if I click the source a couple
03:11things happen first of all the AI
03:13creates kind of a almost like a summary
03:16or an abstract of this source and these
03:18are some of the key topics and then if I
03:20want to actually see the full contents
03:22of the source I can just scroll down
03:24here I want to add a few more sources
03:26because the real power of notebook LM is
03:28not working with one Source it's working
03:30and drawing from multiple sources all at
03:33the same time and simultaneously so what
03:35I'm going to do is Click add source and
03:37add a few more drive documents and what
03:40I'm going to do is navigate to a folder
03:42where I have saved all the notes on
03:45every book and article I've read over
03:47the past few years later on in the video
03:49I'll show you how I was able to generate
03:52all of these documents and what I want
03:53to ask myself is what have I already
03:55read in the past and even taken notes on
03:58that might contribute to and be a useful
04:00resource in what I'm working on today so
04:02I'm just going to go through this list
04:04briefly and select any other documents
04:06that kind of strike me as potentially
04:08relevant here's one about what the world
04:11201312 this is a good book here about
04:13the power of constraints climate change
04:15which is the topic of the course that I
04:17took even about what it might look like
04:18to terraform other planets such as in
04:20the science fiction book blue Mars some
04:23big picture perspective about our place
04:24in the universe designing for Behavior
04:26change because we may need to have a lot
04:28of behavior change when it comes to
04:30preparing for climate change I'm really
04:32just kind of noticing which books jump
04:34out at me as in some way related to the
04:36topic at hand so looks like I have 13
04:38I'm going to go ahead and click insert
04:40all of the sources that I chose are now
04:42being added to the sidebar so let's talk
04:44about the two other spaces that you're
04:46going to be working with and now that we
04:47have all of our sources loaded up the
04:49main one is this little box down here
04:51which is really like other chat based AI
04:54tools such as chat GPT that we're used
04:56to you're basically going to have a
04:57conversation with the AI but drawing on
04:59the sources over there in the left so I
05:01could say something like create an
05:03outline of the main ideas related to
05:07personal preparation for climate change
05:11found in these sources hit
05:13enter you can see it takes a minute and
05:16there we go it's a hierarchical highly
05:19structured outline with main points and
05:22then supporting points or evidence or
05:24expanding on those points underneath
05:26each one and they're kind of in order
05:28from early things that you'll to think
05:29about to much later things this is just
05:32the first step there's a few different
05:34directions that we could go from here
05:35the first thing is I could ask it one of
05:38these suggested questions that you see
05:41down here you can see I can actually
05:42scroll right and left and what's
05:44interesting is they're based on this
05:46particular text so they're not just
05:47generic ones that appear the same way
05:49every time so things like what are the
05:51three main things to consider so let's
05:53say I just want something really Snappy
05:55really succinct I could click that it
05:57will ask that question and there you go
05:59it's kind of distilled it down to the
06:01three main things that I need to know
06:02what are some ways that individuals can
06:04prepare for and respond to both the
06:07personal and societal changes that are
06:09likely to occur as a result of climate
06:11change let's try that one as it's
06:12working behind the scenes I'm really
06:14having a conversation I can ask it to
06:16expand or to distill I can ask it to
06:18give me more information on one point
06:20but not others I can ask it to give me
06:22different formats like write this as a
06:25poem write it as a narrative write it as
06:28a question and answer FAQ format you can
06:30see in this case it's sort of adapted
06:33the content to really be focused on
06:35personal preparation which is the angle
06:37that I'm most interested in there's one
06:38more the third of the main three
06:41interfaces that you need to know about
06:43if you get a response let's say this one
06:44that you especially like you don't want
06:46to lose it this is a free flowing
06:48conversation so you might think well if
06:50I keep going and keep conversing I'm
06:52going to lose track of some of these
06:53great responses all you have to do is
06:55click this little pin icon and it's
06:58saved to this big space up here taking
07:01up the top of the screen you can think
07:03of this as a kind of pin board where you
07:05are pinning these kind of little cards
07:08with interesting information that the AI
07:10has given you just so that you keep them
07:11top of mind and easy to see and easy to
07:14reference one more cool detail here
07:16let's say in the midst of your work you
07:18realize oh there's another source I'd
07:20like to add you can always click right
07:22here where it says add note and either
07:24copy and paste from somewhere for
07:26example your note taking app or
07:28something that you found online or
07:29something from an email or you can just
07:31write directly into the note for example
07:33let's say I remember that the creator of
07:35that course that I took his name is Alex
07:37Stefan recently wrote a piece on
07:39substack that is much more recent and
07:41much more timely and I want to also
07:43incorporate that writing in that
07:45thinking into what I'm doing what I can
07:46do is head over to Evernote here is the
07:50excerpts from his article I'm going to
07:51do command a for select all I'm going to
07:55copy all that text and put it right into
07:57a new note and now what it will do is
08:00allow me to check this box right here
08:02and incorporate what I've just added
08:04right into the conversation that was a
08:06very basic tour of three of the main
08:08areas that you are going to need to pay
08:10attention to to use notebook LM
08:12effectively what Google has done is
08:15basically redesigned a notetaking app
08:17from scratch with modern AI in mind you
08:21still need to take notes but you can
08:22just kind of dump them into one giant
08:25pile and use the AI to sort through and
08:27make sense of them rather than having to
08:29meticulously organize things in files
08:32and folders notebook LM is different
08:34from other AI tools such as chat GPT
08:36because you can train it on a specific
08:39set of documents you know and trust that
08:41could be excerpts from books you saved
08:43notes you've taken in class highlights
08:45from articles or web pages or your own
08:48thoughts this is called Source grounded
08:50AI you point the AI at a specific set of
08:54documents effectively giving it instant
08:57expertise in whatever knowledge they can
08:59contain so you always know it's only
09:01drawing on authoritative private trusted
09:05information next I want to take a look
09:06at some of my favorite use cases that
09:08I've been using notebook lm4 sometimes
09:10I'm reading a difficult complex piece of
09:13writing such as a academic paper and I
09:16just need some help understanding it
09:17what you can do is upload a PDF of what
09:20you're reading this is a paper about the
09:22role of forgetting and learning I'm
09:24going to go ahead and select it and say
09:27what is the role of forgetting
09:30in learning so you can see here it's
09:31basically summarized what is quite a
09:33long technical paper into something that
09:36I can understand so I notice one of the
09:38points here which is that knowledge can
09:40sometimes have a negative value kind of
09:42piques my interest and the amazing thing
09:44about this conversational interface is I
09:46can now ask what are some examples of
09:50ways knowledge can have negative value
09:54that's kind of confusing to me so you
09:55can see here this is fantastic knowledge
09:57that's incorrect redundant knowledge
09:59harmful knowledge so imagine if I'm
10:01working on a project where I'm trying to
10:03convince let's say an IT administrator
10:07to not save every file that's ever been
10:10created across the entire organization
10:12that's something that I could ask it to
10:13do for me I could say please turn this
10:16information into a letter written to an
10:20IT admin arguing that we don't need to
10:25preserve every document ever created by
10:30the organization and there we go
10:32probably need some editing I'll
10:33definitely want to go through it and add
10:35my own touch but what's so neat about
10:36this is what you see right here which is
10:39the citations let's say I send this
10:41letter to the it admin and they want to
10:43know where did this come from what is
10:44the source what is the evidence what's
10:46the proof by clicking here I can see
10:49specifically where every piece of
10:51information or fact or argument in this
10:53conversation came from so for example
10:55let's click on number six here and not
10:58only does it show you you what is the
11:00original text that it's drawing from but
11:02over here on the left it will open up a
11:04window and highlight in purple that
11:07piece of text in context this is so
11:09important to have value citations need
11:12to be shown in context what was being
11:14argued before that up here what was
11:16being argued after that what is the
11:18holistic kind of situation in which this
11:21knowledge arose let's do another one
11:23which is meeting notes how often have
11:26you been a part of a meeting let's say a
11:27long meeting and you get the transcripts
11:29of everything that was said but they're
11:31so long and convoluted you don't really
11:33want to spend the time to read through
11:34all those even just the notes that you
11:36take yourself as part of a meeting that
11:38you're in this is a great use case for
11:40Notebook LM here is a Google doc which
11:42is the full transcription of a phone
11:45call that I had with a client of mine
11:47who's named duck and you can see it's
11:49very detailed very comprehensive as who
11:51is speaking when they spoke what they
11:54said so there's definitely value here
11:56but when I start to scroll you can see
11:59this is 26 full Pages a very detailed
12:03text I really don't want to spend the
12:05time to find the one or two facts or
12:07opinions or whatever it is I'm looking
12:09for from so much text so what I'm going
12:11to do is just copy the title of this
12:14Google doc go back to notebook LM I've
12:16created a new notebook here called
12:18meeting notes click add Source let's go
12:20back to Google Drive I'm going to paste
12:23it in the search just to make it easy to
12:25find there it is you can see one
12:27selected I'm going to hit insert what I
12:29can do now is essentially have a
12:30conversation with that document which if
12:33we look here has over 12,000 words it's
12:37much much bigger than can fit in chat
12:39GPT for example so what I'm going to ask
12:41is what are the main points of my
12:48Doug so you can see here Doug expressed
12:51interest in creating a training program
12:53what kind of training program well he
12:54believes a group Workshop would be most
12:56effective what does he want to
12:58incorporate into that Workshop elements
12:59of my course I mean this really just
13:01saved me 30 minutes to an hour at least
13:04so I could even go a step further please
13:07create a proposal for a group workshop
13:11training program for Doug's organization
13:15and there we go you can see it's written
13:17in the language of a proposal there's an
13:19introduction objectives target audience
13:22program structure features of the
13:24program benefits I mean this is really
13:25fantastic but I want to take this even
13:27one step further I want to actually add
13:29that right in why not just dump in the
13:31entire text of my book and allow the AI
13:34that I'm working with to draw on those
13:37details so I'm going to go ahead and
13:39click add Source right there I imagine
13:42one thing Doug will want to see is the
13:44full curriculum what is the full content
13:46that you plan on training them on so why
13:47don't I anticipate that and just say now
13:50please I don't know why I always say
13:52please when I talk to AIS create a full
13:56detailed curriculum drawing on my book
14:01building a second brain that covers the
14:04topics above for a full day group
14:10workshop and there we go you can see
14:12there's a target audience goals it has
14:14the morning session and what we're going
14:16to cover specifically introduction the
14:18four pillars fantastic sounds very
14:20familiar because I wrote that myself
14:22here's the afternoon session here's the
14:24closing session what's so cool about
14:26this is the reason I can feel completely
14:28comfortable uploading the full text of
14:30my book to this platform is the sources
14:32that you use in Notebook LM don't go
14:34anywhere else they're not used to train
14:35any model they don't get shared with
14:37anyone the second that I leave this
14:40notebook all of that will be wiped clean
14:42from the ai's short-term memory so those
14:45were probably half a dozen use cases
14:47that have to do with your day-to-day
14:49work reading understanding translating
14:52from one format to another but next I
14:54want to dive into a very specific use
14:57case that is very close to my heart
14:58heart and I know close to the heart of
15:00the people who created this which is
15:02writing especially writing that is
15:05creative or that is complex or
15:09multifaceted that is trying to
15:11simultaneously pull from many different
15:14kinds of really diverse sources while
15:17also synthesizing it into something that
15:20is your own creation that has your own
15:21style your own voice your own
15:23perspective the first writing use case I
15:25want to show you is using notebook LM
15:28almost like an editor so this is a piece
15:30of writing that I've done it's in draft
15:32mode and what I'm going to do is copy
15:34the title I've created a new notebook
15:36here called Mastermind insights I'm
15:38going to go ahead and add a source go to
15:40drive paste that in the search field
15:42there it is you can see one selected
15:45insert you can see if I click on the
15:46source it will show me what they call a
15:48source guide which includes a summary
15:50and key topics so let's exit out of that
15:52and what I'll ask is please suggest ways
15:56this piece could be improved so what's
16:00interesting is it's giving me lots of
16:02ideas but what I wanted to actually do
16:04is say please rewrite this piece in full
16:08following the instructions above it's
16:11funny it wrote it in a bullet point
16:13format so I'll ask please convert this
16:16from bullet point format into Pros now
16:20this is already probably better it's
16:22certainly much more succinct which I'm
16:24always trying to go for there's one more
16:26thing I can do here which is add a
16:27source go back to drive and let's see if
16:30I have any interesting sources on
16:32writing so this is one that jumps out at
16:35me immediately I can tell from the title
16:37it's a my notes on a book called Write
16:39useful books which is really about
16:41non-fiction prescriptive writing so I'm
16:43going to insert that and say please
16:47rewrite my article on takeaways from my
16:52first Mastermind drawing on advice found
16:59useful books it's interesting I'm
17:01curious looking at the citations which
17:03tell me some of the specific ways that
17:05it did that for example not using titles
17:08or headings that are clever or punny
17:11because that is interesting or
17:13entertaining but not useful is a great
17:15piece of advice for this kind of writing
17:17the next use case for writing I want to
17:18show you is really earlier in the
17:20ideation process let's say you're not
17:23even sure what you want to write in the
17:24first place you just kind of have some
17:26messy notes and you're looking for a
17:28collab Ator that can help you give them
17:30some meaning and some structure we'll go
17:32ahead and create a new notebook which is
17:34new article let's say I don't even know
17:36what it's going to be about going to go
17:38ahead and add a source go to drive let's
17:41go back to readwise which contains all
17:44the notes and all the books that I've
17:46read and what I'm going to do is pick
17:48one let's say that I've read recently
17:50such as a history of the index and what
17:52I'm going to ask it is please suggest
17:56related ideas or avenu
17:59of research related to this book so it's
18:02giving me ideas from indexing prehistory
18:05to Alternative indexing systems this
18:07book is about indexing the impact of
18:09digital indexing I mean each one of
18:11these is potentially a rabbit hole that
18:12I could run after the one that jumps out
18:15at me is historical Evolution and just
18:18seeing that reminds me that I have
18:20another book that I've taken notes on in
18:22the past which I believe was called glut
18:25there it is so let's add that in which
18:27is more about the past and about how our
18:30relationship to information has changed
18:32over time so now I have two sources I
18:34can ask please find connections or
18:38relationships between the ideas in these
18:42two books let's see if it found anything
18:45interesting so this is the one that
18:47strikes me I would like to write a piece
18:49about the democratization of knowledge
18:51how access to knowledge and ways of
18:54structuring knowledge has become more
18:56accessible over time so I'm going to say
18:58please suggest a few ideas for articles
19:03I could write about the
19:08democratization of knowledge through
19:11history and these all kind of strike me
19:12as somewhat generic what I think I would
19:14like to do is use a specific story use a
19:17specific example and what comes to mind
19:19I don't know why is a book I read about
19:22paleontology let's see if I can find it
19:24yeah it was called fossil men let's add
19:26that in here and now I'm going to say
19:28suggest the title of a of an article
19:35democratization of knowledge using an
19:44fossils okay well that's an interesting
19:46title but I'm going to say expand on
19:49that title with an outline of key points
19:53this piece could contain interesting
19:56fossils in the history of Life fossils
19:57in human Origins so it's really going
20:00hard on this idea of fossils uh but kind
20:02of weaving together or weaving through
20:05it different ideas about democratizing
20:07knowledge this would obviously require
20:09more development I'd want to go in and
20:11look at the sources that it found maybe
20:13ask some of these follow-up questions
20:15let's say I'm satisfied with this
20:16initial outline for a piece I could even
20:19go so far as to say please write the
20:22opening lines of this article making
20:26them as a attention grabbing as possible
20:31like a a hidden world awaits a Chronicle
20:34of Life Frozen in time this is fantastic
20:36just notice what we've done we went from
20:39not even knowing what I wanted to write
20:41about really just a single source that I
20:43had been reading recently all the way to
20:46the opening lines of what sounds like a
20:48pretty interesting piece if you ask me
20:50through a completely conversational back
20:53and forth collaborative exercise with an
20:56artificial intelligence it's totally
20:58amazing now you may have noticed that
21:00what allowed this what made this
21:02possible was that I had all my notes and
21:04highlights from every book and article
21:06I've read over the past few years
21:08already in Google Drive but you can do
21:10that too and I want to show you how it's
21:12possible with a really powerful tool
21:14called readwise check out our in-depth
21:17video on how to use readwise for more
21:18information but what you can do is go to
21:22readwise which is a paid service and
21:25once you create an account and log in
21:27you can click dashboard here if you go
21:29to the import section you want to make
21:31sure that under the connected section
21:33right here you have your Kindle eBooks
21:37or your relater app or social media or
21:39whatever is the source that you want to
21:42be able to save in Google Drive which
21:44you can then use in Notebook LM so for
21:46me the two main ones are Kindle right
21:48here and readwise reader which I use to
21:50read online content let's head back to
21:52the dashboard and then the second thing
21:54to look at is under export you want to
21:57be sure that Google Docs is listed here
22:00under the connected section normally it
22:02will appear down here all you have to do
22:04is Click connect sign in to your Google
22:06Docs account the same account that you
22:08used to create the notebook LM account
22:10and then Google Docs will appear right
22:12here if you click into the Google Doc
22:14settings the key feature that you want
22:16to pay attention to is this third one
22:19right here if this is not checked then
22:22readwise will send all the excerpts from
22:25each source to its own individual Google
22:28doc so the excerpts that I saved from
22:30one book will go to one Google doc that
22:32makes it really easy to go through like
22:34you saw and select only the sources that
22:36you want to use in Notebook LM but if
22:39this is turned on what it will do is it
22:41will send all the highlights to one or
22:44maybe if you have many highlights just a
22:47few Google Docs so that you can fit it
22:50within that 20 notebook limit what that
22:52allows you to do is essentially have a
22:54conversation with your entire history of
22:57highlights from whatever sources you
22:59imported into readwise once you click
23:01here where it says start export to
23:03Google Docs you'll want to leave it
23:04running for probably a few hours
23:06depending on how many highlights you
23:07have but once it's finished you'll see a
23:09readwise folder appear in drive all
23:13right I know that was a lot I want to
23:15turn now to the other side of the story
23:17there's always another side which is
23:19some of the limitations and pitfalls
23:21this is an experimental brand new
23:24platform which means it's a little rough
23:26around the edges there are bugs they're
23:28having to invent a completely new
23:29interface which means there is a bit of
23:31a learning curve you have to figure out
23:33what the different buttons do and what
23:34the different parts of the window mean
23:36currently you have to provide the
23:38sources to notebook LM in the form of
23:41basically Google Docs or PDFs it doesn't
23:44have the ability to directly connect to
23:46a not taking app such as Evernote or
23:49notion or even Google keep you'd have to
23:51use something like readwise as an
23:53intermediary to get your notes into
23:55notebook LM you're limited to only 20
23:57sources at most so if you have more
24:00sources than that that you want to use
24:02you're going to have to do some manual
24:04copying and pasting to get them under 20
24:06just like a lot of other AI tools
24:08notebook LM has trouble doing math
24:11reading PDFs that have messy formatting
24:14and finding a lot of precise details if
24:17the sources that you're using are really
24:19large I've also talked to the notebook
24:20LM team and they said fixes and
24:22improvements to a lot of those issues
24:24are coming soon this is way more than a
24:26notetaking tool way more than a writing
24:28tool and it's way more than an
24:30organizational tool here's how I
24:32describe what notebook LM is trying to
24:34do until now the stages of the creative
24:37process like reading researching
24:40notetaking and writing were completely
24:43separate we had to use completely
24:45different tools for each step which
24:47means we were constantly having to
24:49switch between them and worry about
24:51things like formatting and compatibility
24:53and security and privacy no one software
24:56tool could do it all notebook LM gets
24:59all those steps and folds them into a
25:01single integrated space so you can
25:04remain in that wonderful Flow State and
25:06keep moving forward they call it working
25:09at the speed of thought it's an AI
25:11collaborator trained on the data Only
25:14You possess with your unique view of the
25:17world I suggest signing up for a free
25:19account at notebook lm. goole.com let me
25:23know what you think about notebook LM in
25:25the comments anything Google
25:28I have trouble saying the word Google
25:29how do you say that word Google Google
25:36Google I think it's more like goo like
25:39you say the goo first Google go how do
25:44you say that word Alex Google just like
25:47a normal person basically
