Google’s NotebookLM Uses AI to Help Level Up Your Studying
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The Good
- Easy to use
- Allows sign-in through your existing Google account
- Turns notes and resources into digestible material
- Free to use
The Bad- Still "experimental," so it needs to be checked for accuracy
Table of Contents
Lately, I've been testing several apps that function like digital notebooks, giving you a place to jot down your ideas or store your study materials. Those are great, generally speaking, but until I messed around with Google's NotebookLM, I didn't realize they were missing something pretty key: They don't have any way to help you make sense of all the documents, research, notes, and content you collect in them. NotebookLM, a relatively new and still "experimental" artificial intelligence tool from Google, does. In fact, helping you make sense of your materials is its whole purpose.
NotebookLM is simple to use
When you log into NotebookLM on your desktop, you are prompted to sign in with your Google account. I am a well-known fiend for having multiple Google accounts all dedicated to specific areas of my life (various jobs, school, personal business, etc.), and I use Google's suite of products religiously to manage every detail of my life, so that part was easy enough for me.
You get a pop-up notification that tells you in no uncertain terms that "your personal data is never used to train or improve NotebookLM," that anything you upload will remain private to you, and that it may still sometimes provide inaccurate information anyway, so you should always check with financial, legal, or medical experts if those are the kinds of projects you're working on.
From there, you're prompted to create your first notebook, which is the word NotebookLM uses to describe, basically, a single source of truth on a given topic. An SSOT is a repository where you keep all the information, resources, and materials related to whatever it is you're doing. In this case, you can upload local files, files from your Google Drive, links to websites or YouTube videos, or plain old copied-and-pasted text. To test it out, I uploaded a PDF about the history of pilates, plus the link to a similar YouTube video and the link to pilates' Wikipedia entry.
Right away, a chat bot appeared. I could input questions I had and it would answer them based on information contained within those three sources. I asked when the practice became popular in the United States and why it has earned a reputation for popularity among the affluent. The bot broke down detailed answers to both questions. The chat window even includes a settings button on the top right that allows you to change the conversation style, so if you want it to act as an analyst, a guide, or something more casual, you can tweak it.
It makes study materials that will work for your needs
The chat bot is helpful if you have questions about your materials, so if you get a ton of PDFs to read from one of your professors, add them there and ask for a summary or probe with more specific queries. I even tested out whether I could use the Feynman method—a technique for studying that involves explaining the material to another person to determine if you're really grasping the main points—by asking the bot if I could explain pilates and have it correct anything I got wrong. The bot agreed, I gave a quick description of pilates, and it told me what I was right about and what could use more work. The Feynman technique is one of my favorite studying approaches, but I know it's hard to use consistently because it's not always possible to find someone else you can explain the material to, so I think this is a huge benefit offered by NotebookLM.
But what if that's not your preferred studying method? No worries; you have options. Most famously, NotebookLM creates "podcasts" you can listen to based on the materials you upload. I generated a "conversation" between two voices, which took a little under two minutes, and was able to hear the two voices discussing the topic conversationally. They actually sounded like a real podcast, with one announcing he would be discussing "something you guys have been asking about lately" and another one interjecting with the occasional, "Yeah, totally!" That's major: Studying with podcasts—especially when you listen to them over and over to entrench information in your memory—is really helpful for a lot of people, and this tool generates one for you with very little effort required on your part.
You can also generate all kinds of study helpers, from timelines and mind maps to study guides and quizzes (with correct answers at the end, of course).
Try NotebookLM out if you have a lot to study
While I was playing with this, I could not only imagine how useful it would be for me in managing my life, but how useful it would be for managing studies. I'm studying for a certification exam right now and plan to input my materials later so I can get quizzed by the chat bot in preparation for the test. A year ago, when I was in grad school, I would have used this all the time to distill information from the seemingly endless case studies I was assigned to read for each of my classes. If you have to study for something, whether it's a class, a test, or an event at work, sticking all your materials into this tool and letting it draw connections, create study guides, and help you understand it all is a no-brainer. Plus, it's free to use.
Lindsey Ellefson is Lifehacker’s Features Editor. She currently covers study and productivity hacks, as well as household and digital decluttering, and oversees the freelancers on the sex and relationships beat. She spent most of her pre-Lifehacker career covering media and politics for outlets like Us Weekly, CNN, The Daily Dot, Mashable, Glamour, and InStyle. In recent years, her freelancing has focused on drug use and the overdose crisis, with pieces appearing in Vanity Fair, WIRED, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, and more. Her story for BuzzFeed News won the 2022 American Journalism Online award for Best Debunking of Fake News.
In addition to her journalism, Lindsey recently graduated from the NYU School of Global Public Health with her Master of Public Health after conducting research on media bias in reporting on substance use with the Opioid Policy Institute’s Reporting on Addiction initiative. She is also a Schwinn-certified spin class teacher and won the 2023 Dunkin’ Donuts Butter PeContest that earned her a year of free coffee. Lindsey lives in New York, NY.
