Google is expanding the capabilities of its AI research tool, NotebookLM, by adding web search functionality. This allows users to find online resources and incorporate them directly into their notebooks. This feature is currently rolling out to all NotebookLM users.
The new system lets users describe what they're looking for, and NotebookLM automatically searches the internet and organizes relevant sources. Users can add these discovered resources to their notebooks with a single click and then process the content using NotebookLM's existing features, such as creating summaries and generating FAQs.
This update raises potential legal concerns, particularly copyright challenges. It's unclear whether importing entire web resources into NotebookLM will face objections from content creators, especially publishers who might oppose users accessing content through Google's tool rather than their official websites.
Unlike other AI tools, NotebookLM relies on user-provided specific resources rather than broad training data, a design intended to minimize AI hallucinations. A key feature is its audio overview function, which transforms documents into a conversational format between two AI hosts.
Google recently moved NotebookLM from its experimental phase to a fully launched product. The tool offers two versions: a free basic version and a premium enhanced version with additional features, primarily aimed at enterprise users. While NotebookLM saw 31.5 million visits in October last year, indicating considerable usage, it still lags significantly behind ChatGPT, which boasts billions of visits.
