Google’s NotebookLM now lets you guide the hosts of your AI podcast

Google’s NotebookLM now lets you customize its podcast-like Audio Overviews. Before you generate a discussion using the note-taking app, you can give your AI hosts instructions about what topic you’d like them to focus on, or even tailor their discussions for different audiences.

Google launched NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews last month, with two AI hosts that offer a “lively” discussion of your research. The company notes that its Audio Overviews aren’t meant to be a “comprehensive or objective overview of a topic” and are “simply a reflection of the sources that you’ve uploaded and any instructions you provide.”

To customize the chat, open up a notebook in NotebookLM, select “Notebook guide,” and then navigate to the “Deep dive conversation” option. From there, hit “Customize,” and enter instructions that you want your AI hosts to follow. NotebookLM will then generate a conversation based on the directions you’ve provided.

In addition to taking the “experimental” label off NotebookLM, Google is introducing background listening for Audio Overviews, allowing you to listen to the AI hosts’ discussion while you work in other areas of the app. Last month, Google also added the ability for NotebookLM to dig deeper into YouTube videos with transcriptions.