NotebookLM Review: Bring Your Own Sources to This Ultrapractical Google AI Tool

Pros

Generates AI insights with your own data
Wide variety of tools and uses

Cons

Limited to Google’s AI models
Not private or stored on your device

Editors’ Note: NotebookLM is unlike other AI tools. While some tools want to be your AI playground and allow you to do a little bit of everything, NotebookLM delivers on what it promises, which is to help you learn and understand your data better. What started as a small Google experiment is now possibly the most practical AI product, which is why it received a CNET Editors’ Choice Award.

Of the countless AI tools available today, NotebookLM remains virtually one of a kind. As a Google app that uses AI to help you work with your own source material — and only the stuff you provide it — it’s essentially without peer. Similar tools still lack either function, polish or both, giving this Google option no equal, at least not yet.

NotebookLM is an AI research assistant that lets you ask questions and create deliverables from the data that you feed it. Unlike a typical AI chatbot, NotebookLM relies entirely on your sources, not random information from the internet or reams of questionable training data.

This use of artificial intelligence is valuable and in demand. For instance, Matthew McConaughey said last year on a podcast that he wanted a personal LLM that was fed all his books, notes and other personal information so he could ask questions and get answers without any external influence. This is essentially what NotebookLM does.

Google first demoed what was then called Project Tailwind at its I/O developer conference in 2023, calling it an AI-first notebook. It was able to answer questions based on documents that were uploaded to it and create a study guide for the material automatically. While impressive in its own right, that is about as basic as NotebookLM gets today.

Since its official release in 2023, Google…

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