Imagine uploading notes, reports, or articles to a digital notebook… and having it summarize them for you and read them aloud in Spanish as if it were a podcast. Well, that’s more or less what NotebookLM does, one of the most promising artificial intelligence tools Google has recently released.
In this article, I explain thoroughly what it is, how it works, what it can do (including its brand new Spanish audio function), and, above all, how you can take advantage of it even if you have no idea about programming.
What is NotebookLM?
NotebookLM started as an experiment within Google Labs and has gradually become one of those hidden gems worth knowing. The idea is simple: you give it documents, web pages, or videos, and it becomes an expert assistant on that content. It summarizes them for you, explains ideas, answers questions… and now, it narrates them naturally, as if it were a podcast announcer.
Unlike chatbots that answer using what they have learned from the internet, NotebookLM only uses what you give it. So, it is perfect for working with concrete information without inventions.
I’ve left you one of the last videos related to this Xavier Mitjana application, in which you can check its capabilities.
What AI is driving all this?
The engine that powers it is Gemini 1.5, Google’s next-generation language model. It is like NotebookLM’s brain, capable of understanding text, images, audio, and video, and generating coherent and useful responses.
But here’s the kicker: you don’t have to know anything about models or algorithms. You upload a PDF, paste a link, or write some notes… and the magic happens. The system processes everything and starts giving you summaries, personalized answers, and mind maps, and you can finally get the audio in Spanish.
What else can NotebookLM do?
In addition to audio, there are a lot of useful functions:
- Summarize long documents: you upload a PDF or several PDFs, and it extracts the key ideas.
- Compare sources: You can ask about the differences between various texts.
- Answering doubts: like a personalized tutor, but focused only on what you gave them.
- Generate study guides, FAQs, or outlines: ideal for students or professionals.
- Create mind maps: to see graphically how concepts are connected.
- Search for new sources: if you are researching, it suggests relevant content.
- Transcribe and analyze videos or audios: Yes, you can upload a talk and have it tell you what it’s about.
And everything stays neatly organized in your digital notebook.
Practical use cases (non-technical)
This is not just for researchers. Here are some ideas of how you could use it in real life:
- Studying or preparing presentations. Do you have five articles to read by tomorrow? Upload everything to NotebookLM and ask for a comparative summary. You can also generate an audio to review while you do other things.
- Create an educational podcast without recording anything: Do you have a blog or newsletter? Paste the content, ask for a summary in podcast format, and publish it. This way, you can create an audio channel in minutes without needing a voiceover.
- Content marketing: You upload a report on your brand or industry and ask for ideas for posts, tweets, video scripts, and more. You can even turn a business presentation into a mini sales podcast.
- Save time at work: Do you have to read an endless report? Upload the PDF, ask for an executive summary, and, if you prefer, listen to it in Spanish audio while driving or going to the gym.
Advantages over other assistants
- It is focused only on your documents; it does not mix information from other sites.
- Processes text, images, video, and audio, all in one.
- Provides answers and practical formats: podcasts, maps, diagrams, guides, etc.
- It’s from Google, free for now, and integrates with Drive.
- And most importantly, you don’t need to know AI or programming to use it.
What about the future?
Google has already announced that it will soon launch a mobile version, which will allow users to listen to their content anywhere, even offline. In addition, they are testing an enterprise version for work teams, which could change the way information is shared and understood within a company.
It is also likely that soon you will be able to choose voice accents, change narration styles and even interact by voice with the generated podcast itself. A revolution is coming.
And you, do you dare to let your notebook speak to you?
Have a good week!
