A new version of NotebookLM launches today—we test it live on the show
Imagine every interesting idea you’ve ever had spread out before you.

Now, imagine that you can talk to them and have them talk to each other, making connections you didn’t see before.

Google Lab’s note-taking and research assistant NotebookLM is making this a reality.

A brand new version of the product launches today—and I spent an hour testing it with Steven Johnson, one of the driving forces behind the model.

NotebookLM runs on Google’s most capable model, Gemini 1.5 Pro, and it’s a powerful ally in gleaning meaningful insights from piles of information. The new features in today’s launch include:

availability in over 200 countries
in-line citations that link back to the source material
the ability to understand and read images

NotebookLM uses software to organize ideas—something that Steven Johnson has been obsessed with for over three decades, first as a college student who built an app to organize his class notes, and now as the editorial director of NotebookLM and Google Labs. Steven is also the bestselling author of 14 books, including his latest release, The Infernal Machine, which records the rise of the modern detective.

We screen-share through Steven’s projects on NotebookLM, exploring new features as we prompt the model to:

analyze an assortment of around 7,000 quotes that Steven has collected from nearly all the books that he has read since 1999
co-create the opening scene of a documentary

This is a must-watch for anyone who wants to use AI to think, research, and write.

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Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Follow Steven Johnson
NotebookLM
Steven’s newsletter, Adjacent Possible
Steven’s latest book about the rise of the modern detective: The Infernal Machine
A few of Steven’s other books:
How We Got to Now
Where Good Ideas Come From
The Ghost Map
Emergence
The Invention of Air