Now you can generate NotebookLM-style podcasts in Google Drive

NotebookLM, Google’s analysis sidekick, is well considered one of its strongest AI instruments. Though it packs a good-looking set of options that make deep investigations far simpler, options like audio and video overview make the educational course of rather more partaking. Impressed by its recognition, Google is extending considered one of these options to different apps.

Google is now increasing NotebookLM’s audio overviews to PDF recordsdata saved in your Google Drive. With this, content material from any PDF might be transformed into audio summaries with the identical interactive podcast fashion as NotebookLM’s audio overviews.

Now, while you open a PDF file in your Google Drive, you will notice a devoted button to generate an audio overview on the high of the doc preview. You’ll be able to both click on the button or kind a immediate within the sidebar devoted to interacting with Gemini. Primarily based on the size of the doc, Drive will generate an audio overview that’s wherever between two and 10 minutes lengthy, Google mentions in its announcement.

Presently, you’ll be able to solely create audio overviews on the internet; nonetheless, we hope Google will add help for this function in cell apps quickly.

While you click on to play the generated audio overview, it opens in a brand new tab and performs like a daily audio file in your Drive. That’s as a result of the generated overview can be saved as a separate file in your Google Drive. Sadly, nonetheless, the Gemini sidebar doesn’t at present retailer any dialog historical past, so accessing the file later is made simpler by this newly created file.

Presently, it doesn’t allow you to interrupt — or work together with — the AI podcast hosts as you’ll be able to in NotebookLM. And similar to NotebookLM, no progress sync or transcription options are at present out there, though we hope Google will streamline these options sooner or later.

The audio overview — similar to different Gemini options in Drive or Gmail — isn’t free for the time being. It requires both a Google Workspace membership (each Enterprise and Training variations are supported) or a paid Gemini subscription. Google says audio overviews for PDF recordsdata in Drive will roll out progressively beginning in the present day, i.e., November 12, and will likely be out there to all Workspace and Gemini AI Professional or Extremely customers over the approaching weeks.

Google hasn’t specified areas for the rollout, so we will count on the function to be out there to customers worldwide. Nonetheless, it is going to be initially restricted to paperwork in English solely.