Google recently upgraded its note-taking AI assistant to Gemini 1.5 Pro, expanded its availability to over 200 countries and territories, and introduced several new features. NotebookLM now supports web URLs and Google Slides for input to generate answers to related queries. Answers will also contain in-line citations that link directly to the relevant passages in the source material. Also, the Notebook guide is now capable of generating high-level summaries, overviews and FAQs.

Google has shared a series of case studies on its blog highlighting several innovative uses of NotebookLM including biographer WalterIsaacson's analysis of Marie Curie's journals as well as podcasters and documentary researchers. 'Source grounding' minimizes the risk of hallucination that AI assistants are often prone to, but does not completely eliminate it. Still, larger issues are at play here. Privacy concerns remain since NotebookLM will require users to willingly upload material for it to be of any help unless Google finds a way to tether it to Gemini Nano – the lighter version of Gemini that runs on the Pixel 8 Pro. 

While NotebookLM is still very much an experimental product, it has garnered the support of a diverse 14000-member community consisting of writers, publishers, students and role-playing game enthusiasts. And as Google commences the global rollout of its note-taking AI agent, the community is set to grow even larger.