NotebookLM is a research and note-taking tool that uses artificial intelligence. The key feature is that it works exclusively with the content you upload, making it a "thinking partner" for your own materials. It can process a variety of sources that are uploaded, including Google Docs, Google Slides, PDFs, text files, and even YouTube video transcripts. This provides a virtual AI working space where your content is safe and secure because it is an Ohio State managed account.
What can I do with NotebookLM?
- Generate summaries: Upload a long research paper or report and ask NotebookLM to give a quick summary of the main points.
- Ask questions: Instead of spending hours searching through a document, ask a question and get an answer grounded in your sources, complete with citations.
- Find connections: Upload several documents on a topic and let NotebookLM find connections and themes across the files.
- Generate an Audio Overview: This feature creates a podcast-like conversation between two AI voices that break down the complex topics in your documents.
- Create notes and outlines: NotebookLM can help organize thoughts and generate outlines for presentations or papers based on uploaded sources.
How is NotebookLM different from Gemini?
The main difference is where they get their information:
- Gemini is a general chat assistant that pulls information from the vast knowledge of the internet.
- NotebookLM is a personal research assistant that only uses your uploaded sources. This means its answers are always based on the specific information you provided, giving you a higher level of accuracy and control over your data.
Learn More About NotebookLM
Important Information
Providing access to Google tools in addition to our Microsoft tenant allows members of our organization to collaborate with other institutions that may rely on the Google suite of products.
No one at the university is required to adopt the use of these available Google products.
Google Drive, Colab, NotebookLM, Gemini, Sheets, Docs, and Slides are collaborative tools designed to enable research in pursuit of the AI fluency initiative. As such, these services are approved for use with Research Data, Research Health Information, and FERPA data. Regulated data including (but not limited to) PCI, ITAR, CUI, and HIPAA are not approved for use with these services. If you have questions about the sensitivity of data you plan to use with these services, please email the Data Governance Team.