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NotebookLM: The best AI tool you’ve probably never used

OpenAI DevDay announcements, Copilot v2 unveiled, Meta Ray-Ban privacy concerns and more!

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Everyday AI
October 01, 2024

Outsmart The Future

Today in Everyday AI
7 minute read

🎙 Daily Podcast Episode: There’s an amazing AI tool flying under the radar. Google’s NotebookLM is so good it might even be better than Gemini! We show you its capabilities. Give it a listen.

🕵️‍♂️ Fresh Finds: Chromebook gets AI button, Microsoft Paint and Photos get AI update and Malaysia’s plans for AI regulation. Read on for Fresh Finds.

🗞 Byte Sized Daily AI News: OpenAI DevDay updates, Microsoft Copilot gets new features and Meta Ray-Ban glasses privacy concerns. For that and more, read on for Byte Sized News.

🚀 AI In 5: Copilot just got a v2 update! We’re showing you what’s new and previewing some of the features. See it here

🧠 Learn & Leveraging AI: Wondering what all the buzz is about with Google’s NotebookLM? We break down why it’s our new favorite AI tool. Keep reading for that!

↩️ Don’t miss out: Did you miss our last newsletter? We talked about OpenAI price updates, Apple could retreat from OpenAI funding and Copilot gets a redesign. Check it here!

NotebookLM - The best AI tool you’ve probably never used 

Lean in for a secret.

NotebookLM is probably the best tool Google has made since the search engine.

We dish on what you need to know about NotebookLM, which we think will change how LLMs are built in the future.

Join the conversation and ask Jordan questions on NotebookLM here.

Also on the pod today:

• Benefits of NotebookLM ✅
• Use Cases for NotebookLM 📓
• NotebookLM vs Google Gemini 🥊

It’ll be worth your 1 hour and 5 minutes:

Listen on our site:

Click to listen

Subscribe and listen on your favorite podcast platform

Listen on:

Here’s our favorite AI finds from across the web:

New AI Tool Spotlight – Polymet is an AI product designer, Magic Inspector is an AI web test automation platform and Nuvio provides AI-powered financial management.

Google – Chromebooks are getting a new button for Google AI.

AI in Society – Malaysia is planning a national cloud policy and AI regulations.

Microsoft - Microsoft has unveiled new AI tools for Paint and Photos

Meta – Meta is expanding its mixed reality headset production in Vietnam.

AI in Medical - This new AI model can reach clinical-expert-level accuracy in complex medical scans.

Read This - Mark Cuban says he believes dogs are smarter than AI right now.

1. OpenAI's DevDay 2024 Unveils News Updates 🚀

OpenAI's DevDay 2024 spotlighted incremental updates over major product launches, focusing on tools designed to bolster developer capabilities. Key announcements included Prompt Caching, which slashes costs for frequently reused inputs, and Vision Fine-Tuning, enhancing AI's visual processing for diverse applications ranging from autonomous vehicles to medical imaging.

The new Realtime API enables seamless voice interactions, aiming to make AI more intuitive across industries, while Model Distillation promises to democratize access to advanced AI capabilities for smaller entities.

2. Microsoft Unveils New Copilot Features for Windows Users ✨

Microsoft has rolled out a suite of fresh capabilities for its Copilot AI across various platforms, including a new feature called Copilot Vision, which allows users to ask questions about on-screen content directly from Microsoft Edge. This update aims to enhance user experience by offering more personalized interactions and a more conversational tone, while also introducing Think Deeper—designed to tackle complex problem-solving tasks.

Importantly, privacy concerns have been addressed: data from Copilot Vision is reportedly deleted after each session, and the feature is limited to non-paywalled, popular websites.

3. Microsoft's Bing Generative Search Launches in U.S. 🇺🇸

Microsoft has rolled out its Bing Generative Search to all U.S. users, building on its AI-driven chat answers introduced earlier this year. This new feature promises to synthesize information from across the web, providing users with dynamic summaries for their queries, like an overview of spaghetti westerns, while still allowing traditional search results.

While Microsoft claims that its generative search will maintain traffic to publisher sites, critics point to potential traffic drops seen with Google’s AI Overviews, which have been shown to adversely affect publisher traffic by about 25%.

4. Meta's Ray-Ban Glasses Raise Privacy Questions 🤔

Meta's latest AI-powered Ray-Ban glasses are stirring up concerns over privacy as they capture images not only on command but also triggered by keywords like "look." In a recent interview, Meta officials remained tight-lipped about whether these passive photos would be used to train AI models, leaving users in the dark about how their private moments might be handled.

Unlike other AI companies that clearly outline their data usage policies, Meta's ambiguous stance raises red flags, especially given their history of using public social media data for model training.

5. Microsoft Unveils AI-Powered Search Features for Windows PCs 💻

Microsoft is set to enhance Windows search with new AI capabilities, launching on Copilot Plus PCs next month. The improvements include a natural language search that understands user intent, making it easier to locate files without needing to recall their names or locations.

Additionally, the new Click to Do feature promises an interactive experience, allowing users to perform actions directly from their screens, similar to Google’s Circle to Search.

6. Cerebras Systems Files for IPO Amid AI Chip Battle 🤖

Cerebras Systems, the ambitious AI chip startup, has officially filed its prospectus for an initial public offering, eyeing the Nasdaq under the ticker “CBRS.” With a hefty net loss of $66.6 million in the first half of 2024, the company is battling fierce competition from giants like Nvidia and AMD, while relying heavily on UAE-based Group 42 for a significant chunk of its revenue.

Founded in 2016 and boasting a valuation exceeding $4 billion, Cerebras is pushing the envelope with its massive WSE-3 chip, which claims to outpace Nvidia’s offerings in performance.

Copilot V2 Review: Quick review of Copilot and Copilot Labs and Copilot Vision

Microsoft JUST announced a new version of Copilot. The update includes Copilot Labs and Copilot Vision.

We’ll walk you through what’s new and show you a preview.

In our AI in 5 segment on YouTube, we often create different types of videos. Which are your favorites?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

🦾How You Can Leverage:

You know that mythical AI model we all want? 

The one that never lies. 

Always cites its sources. 

Has like an infinite memory. 

And has a bunch of cool other bells and whistles? 

……

Awkward silence

Ughhhhh

It’s here. 

It’s actually been hiding in plain sight, under our very noses y’all. 

TBH, we can’t stop using it.

We’ve used (literally) thousands of AI tools over the year, and NotebookLM is in our Top 5. 

Shocking? 

Maybe. 

Especially if you’ve listened over the past few months, as we’ve (kinda) dragged Google’s Gemini models.

Let’s be honest — the front end of Gemini ain’t that great. Google AI studio for developers is amazing, but the everyday Gemini chat…. Isn’t. 

Compared to ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft Copilot, the Gemini chatbot kinda leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Like, you were supposed to be sweet but you’re… sour. 

And the Gemini AI integration into Google Workspace’s suite of products aint much better. 

Yikes and yikes. 

So how in the actual frick did Google NotebookLM come outta nowhere and capture the internet’s collective attention? 

It’s legit like a RAG SOTA with TTS. WTF. 

(We’ll explain those acronyms, don’t worry.) 

Welp, let’s dig in and understand how and why NotebookLM might just be the best AI tool you’ve never used. 

Here’s what ya need to know. 

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1 – Get grounded for fewer hallucinations 😶‍🌫️

Y'all ever play that game "Telephone" as a kid? 

Where the message gets more bonkers with each passing whisper and the end message is all wrong? 

That's kinda what happens when AI hallucinates. 

But NotebookLM?

It's like that one kid who always ruins the game by repeating the original message friggin verbatim.

Boring at parties, clutch for business.

See, NotebookLM basically uses a grounding technique called RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) by default. 

That’s just a fancy way of saying it's got a memory like an elephant with a grudge. It sticks to YOUR facts, YOUR data, YOUR rules. 

By default. 

Whereas other customizable mini models, like GPTs, Claude Projects and Google’s Gems, sometimes bypass the data you upload and instead use their own internal knowledge or the interwebs. 

NotebookLM is straight grounded in your data. You literally can’t even use it until you upload your data in there. 

(Boring but required announcement — never upload proprietary/confidential/classified data into LLMs unless the person in charge tells you to and it aligns with your AI policy. Whew) 

Ok, so with NotebookLM being a grounded tool/model thanks to its RAG approach, there’s no more AI going off the rails and writing fanfiction about your quarterly reports.

Try this: 

Dump everything into NotebookLM. And we mean EVERYTHING.

That 50-page report Karen from accounting sent (that no one read), those 17 versions of the company mission statement, heck, even throw in the lunch menu from last week.

Then ask it to find that one brilliant idea Bob mumbled during the 3-hour meeting everyone was sleeping through. 

Watch as NotebookLM pulls out insights faster than you can say "synergy".

Also, go check out our quick NotebookLM review here.

2 – More source types and outputs 👏

We’ll give you 25 million reasons to use NotebookLM. 

(That’s how many words it can automagically remember inside any given Notebook. Yes. 25. MILLION!) 

And it’ll take whatever you got, TBH. 

NotebookLM is like that friend who's weirdly good at every party game. 

Text? Yep. 

YouTube videos? You bet. 

Websites? Paste em in. 

Google Docs? Handled. 

Those voice memos you drunkenly recorded at 2 AM about your next big project idea? ...Maybe keep those to yourself, but yeah, it can handle those too.

But here's where it gets wild: NotebookLM doesn't just regurgitate your data like some digital parrot. 

It turns it into "notes" that are actually, y'know, useful. And if you're feeling extra lazy (no judgment, we've all been there), it'll even whip up a podcast for you. 

The ‘Deep Dive’ AI podcast feature is sooooo good and we already reviewed it here. 

Try this: 

Feed NotebookLM that 2-hour YouTube video your boss swears will "change everything" (but you've been avoiding like the plague), that novel-length email thread about the new cover sheet for the TPS reports, and the audio from that team building exercise where Dave from HR tried to make everyone do trust falls. 

Click that ‘Generate” button under Audio Overview to hear two human-sounding AI podcast hosts take a Deep Dive into your content,  summarizing the key points. 

BAM! 

You're now the most informed person in the room, and all you did was listen while you were stuck in traffic.

Confession: We use at least one notebook and AI Deep Dive to help us prep for EVERY SINGLE INTERVIEW we do on the Everyday AI show. 

3 – NotebookLM: Google's best product and a sneak attack? 🤔

Okay, hot take time: Google's front-end Gemini chat?

It's like that restaurant that got some Michelin stars but the food and service are 9.5 on the ‘meh’ scale. 

But NotebookLM? It's that sister restaurant by the same parent restaurant group that legit blows your mind and makes you question everything you thought you knew about food.

(And NotebookLM is FREEEEEE. For now, at least.) 

Cuz when you look at it, NotebookLM is kinda a SOTA with RAG and TTS and zero lies. 

That’s a State of the Art model, grounding with Retrieval Augmented Generation and spits out beautiful Text-to-Speech. 

Has the almost perfect model kinda been under our nose the whole time? 

So while the AI world has been kinda mid on Gemini, Google’s actually been cooking up bangers in AI Studio for devs and secretly slid NotebookLM into our DMs? 

Is this some wild takeover strategy that we didn’t see coming? 

Or, is the NotebookLM project gonna go down in the history books as a side project that turned into a digital behemoth that the world needs like oxygen? 

Try this: 

Time for the ultimate showdown. NotebookLM vs. whatever AI assistant you're currently in a codependent relationship with. 

Give them the same task - maybe figuring out why the heck your company's last product launch flopped harder than a fish out of water. 

See which one gives you insights you can actually use without sending you spiraling into an existential crisis. Our money's on NotebookLM, but hey, may the best bot win!

⌚

Numbers to watch

$32 Million

Numa raises $32M to bring AI and automation to car dealerships.

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