Google’s AI podcast creator NotebookLM could be coming to the Gemini app on your phone

(Image credit: Google)

Beta code hints that Gemini will get NotebookLM access
NotebookLM will allow Gemini to create AI podcasts from PDFs or videos
Linked to your mobile, AI Podcasts could help you learn about any subject around you

Delving deep into the code for the latest beta version of the Google Gemini app, it looks like Google’s NotebookLM AI podcast creation software might be coming to Google Gemini on your phone.

Android Authority has found the following lines of code in a beta version of Gemini:

<code>&lt;string name="assistant_zero_state_suggestions_create_podcast_prompt_query"&gt;Generate audio overview&lt;/string&gt;
&lt;string name="assistant_zero_state_suggestions_create_podcast_snippet_highlight"&gt;Generate audio&lt;/string&gt;
&lt;string name="assistant_zero_state_suggestions_create_podcast_snippet_simplified"&gt;overview&lt;/string&gt;</code>

As you can see, both “create_podcast” and “Generate audio overview” are visible, indicating that Gemini will have the ability to generate a podcast. Moreover, the NotebookLM section that creates the podcast is called an audio overview. Taken together, these two things would seem to indicate a role for Google’s NotebookLM in a future version of Gemini.

How would it work?

Of all the weird and wonderful uses of AI to arrive in 2024, Google’s NotebookLM remains one of the most captivating. NotebookLM contains a number of products that use AI to help you learn any subject. You feed in your source material as a text file, PDF, or video, and it helps you organize that material. One of the ways it does this is through audio overviews.

An audio overview is essentially an audio file that takes the form of a podcast show between two hosts who are discussing whatever subject you’ve fed it via PDFs, web pages, or a YouTube video. Listening to two people discuss a subject is a great way to help you learn about it.

What makes NotebookLM great is how realistic the podcast sounds. It’s very hard to believe you’re not listening to two real people discussing the subject at hand.

If Gemini gives you the ability to create audio podcasts from data sources you feed it, then it’s going to be a great way to help you learn about new subjects.

You can imagine the situation where you upload a PDF to Gemini and then ask it, “Hey, can you make me a podcast about this PDF?” Combine that with Google Lens, and you could be able to get Gemini to generate podcasts about things you are looking at. Just imagine taking a trip around a famous building, like the Vatican, or having Gemini produce a podcast about the building that acts as a guided tour.

The potential for NotebookLM to integrate with other apps or be useful in new situations is almost unlimited, and we’d expect to see Google coming up with new and interesting ways to use it in the very near future.

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Graham is the Senior Editor for AI at TechRadar. With over 25 years of experience in both online and print journalism, Graham has worked for various market-leading tech brands including Computeractive, PC Pro, iMore, MacFormat, Mac|Life, Maximum PC, and more. He specializes in reporting on everything to do with AI and has appeared on BBC TV shows like BBC One Breakfast and on Radio 4 commenting on the latest trends in tech. Graham has an honors degree in Computer Science and spends his spare time podcasting and blogging.