Google's NotebookLM wants to transform how you study with this new feature

Summary

Google’s NotebookLM now lets you interact with its AI hosts for better research assistance.
Interactive mode allows you to ask questions and get responses based on your source material.
Google also introduces a NoteBookLM Plus subscription plan with more access to important features.

Google’s NotebookLM is an AI virtual research assistant that helps you dive into documents to learn information you need faster than ever before. One of its features is called Audio Overview, which reads your document back to you in a conversational way. Imagine turning your textbook into a podcast-like experience with two AI hosts.

Now, Google has announced it’s taking Audio Overview to new heights with a new feature that lets you converse and interact with its AI hosts. So now, if you have a question about the document you’re analyzing, you can ask the AI hosts, and they’ll help you find out what you’re after. Google is also adding its new experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Flash to NoteBookLM to improve its efficiency.

NoteBookLM’s Audio Overview is proving to be a popular feature, with the tech giant saying “more than 350 years worth of Audio Overviews” have been generated in the last three months alone.

Google launches Gemini 2.0, ushering in the era of AI agents

The tech giant has launched Gemini 2.0 globally and revealed several of the experimental projects powered by it.

How to talk to NotebookLM’s Audio Overview host

You’ll be diving deeper into your research in no time

To access this handy new feature, create a new Audio Overview for your document and tap the new Interactive mode (BETA) button. From there, while listening, tap “Join.” The AI host will now join a call with you. Now, ask it your question, and it will respond based on the source material you’ve provided. If you don’t see the new option yet, it’s because Google is rolling it out gradually to collect feedback from users before a wider release.

This feature seems great for helping you study and find key information you need from a large or complex document, such as a research paper or textbook. Google warns the new feature isn’t perfect yet, and that it may “pause awkwardly” when responding to you and “may occasionally introduce inaccuracies.” So, it’s best to always double-check and verify any of the information it provides you.

Additionally, Google is rolling out a new subscription plan for NoteBookLM called NoteBookLM Plus. Its benefits include “five times more Audio Overviews, notebooks, and sources per notebook” and shared team notebooks to foster collaboration with others. The subscription plan is currently available to schools and universities, businesses, and organization/enterprise customers. Google says it will be added to its Google One AI Premium subscription plan in the new year.