Latest news with #note-taking
Wall Street Journal
22-05-2025
- Science
- Wall Street Journal
How Teachers Can Defeat AI
As someone also in the academic trenches, I appreciated John J. Goyette's op-ed 'How to Stop Students From Cheating With AI' (May 20). My plan for the autumn semester is to offer an old-school approach: Students who take handwritten notes in physical notebooks will be allowed to take exams 'open book.' Hopefully this will disincentivize using computers in the classroom and reinstill in students the value of note-taking. Perhaps this will even lead to the return of some creative doodling. Prof. Eric Zolov
TechCrunch
21-05-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Siro lands $50M to expand its AI-powered coaching for sales reps
An increasing number of meetings have an AI note-taker present that transcribes the call and provides action items. Siro wants to do the same for sales folks who are on the ground and talking to customers face-to-face. The company on Wednesday announced it has secured $50 million in Series B round led by SignalFire with participation from Dick Costolo and Adam Bain's VC firm 01 Advisors. Square CPO Saumil Mehta, the founders of business management software Squint Songe LaRon and Dave Salvant, former Yelp SVP of Engineering Michael Stoppelman, and former Snap Engineering VP Ding Zhou also participated. To date, Siro has raised a total of $75 million. Founder Jake Cronin's idea for Siro came from an experience in college. For a summer, he had the option of working at an amusement park or selling kitchen knives door to door. He chose the latter and earned good money from it. The next year, he opened an office to hire other sales reps and have them sell knives. But he realized that he couldn't be on the ground to help coach all the junior reps. Siro founder Jake Cronin Image Credits: Siro A few years later, after working at McKinsey, Cronin started building Siro — coding the core product himself. 'When I was running the knives sales office, I realized a lot of sales work is manual, and good software could have a lot of value,' he told TechCrunch in an interview. 'The more I researched sales, I thought that the biggest opportunity here is not in data enrichment or customer relationship management, but it is in improving the lives of sales reps who are on the ground.' Siro transcribes sales meetings via an app. Features include a company-wide dashboard where sales folks can submit successful calls and sort them by engagement from peers, allowing other reps to listen to top calls and get insights about improving on-ground sales visits. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW Image Credits: Siro Cronin said that Siro trains models for specific industry verticals — for example, for HVAC sales coaching. The company also uses a general-purpose model to gauge how a salesperson is building rapport and handling rejections. Wayne Hu, a partner at SignalFire, said that the VC firm always wants to invest in companies that have a strong business advantage in data for particular segments. 'Siro's solution is helping digitize the 'dark matter' of offline conversations comprising field sales engagements, which has broad extensibility across verticals and depth in downstream actions that can be instrumented from this data, such as customer and product insights,' he told TechCrunch via email.
TechCrunch
20-05-2025
- TechCrunch
Google's NotebookLM is getting Video Overviews
At Google I/O 2025, the tech giant unveiled new capabilities coming to NotebookLM, its AI-based note-taking and research assistant. Most notably, the company is launching Video Overviews. The company says users will soon be able to turn dense multimedia, such as raw notes, PDFs, and images, into digestible visual presentations. Since its launch, NotebookLM has been about helping users understand and interact with complex documents. With this new capability, NotebookLM will be taking a more visual approach to helping users understand different topics and ideas. NotebookLM has already taken an audio approach to helping users understand materials with Audio Overviews, a feature that gives users the ability to generate a podcast with AI virtual hosts based on documents they have shared with NotebookLM, such as course readings or legal briefs. Image Credits:Google Now, Google is rolling out more flexibility to Audio Overviews, as it's letting users select the ideal length for their audio summaries. For example, you can choose to have an Audio Overview at the default length, or longer or shorter. The new features announced today come a day after Google officially released NotebookLM apps for Android and iOS. Up until now, NotebookLM has only been accessible via desktop. Google has now made the service available on the go. The apps feature background playback and offline support for Audio Overviews, along with support for dark mode. The apps also allow people to create new notebooks and view the ones they've already created. Plus, when you're viewing a website, PDF, or YouTube video on your device, you can tap the share icon and select NotebookLM to add it as a new source. Users can also view sources that they have already uploaded in each of the notebooks.
TechCrunch
19-05-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Google launches standalone NotebookLM app for Android
Google has officially released the NotebookLM app for Android, a day before Google I/O 2025 and a day before the company said it would roll out. Since its launch in 2023, the AI-based note-taking and research assistant has only been accessible via desktop. Google has now made the service available on the go. The iOS app is expected to launch Tuesday. NotebookLM is designed to help people better understand complex information through features like smart summaries and the ability to ask questions about documents and other materials. Image Credits:Google The Android app gives access to Audio Overviews, which are NotebookLM's AI-generated podcasts based on the source material. There is background playback and offline support for Audio Overviews. The Android app also allows people to create new notebooks and view the ones they've already created. Users can also upload new sources from their device and view those that have already uploaded in each of the notebooks. The app features a light and dark mode that is applied based on the device's system settings. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW Given the timing of the launch, Google may share more about the app during the company's I/O keynote Tuesday.
CNET
17-05-2025
- CNET
I Never Knew How Much I Needed NotebookLM. Here's How I Use Google's Information Alchemist
I recently revisited Google's NotebookLM and I was impressed with how far it's come. It was already good before, but recent updates have have me hooked in and I will keep coming back. Powered by Google's Gemini AI, it can break down complex subjects into an easy to understand format or even help you brainstorm new ideas. If you're a chaotic notetaker like me, even better: NotebookLM will help you make sense of your nonsense. This isn't just Google Keep stuffed with AI, nor is it just a chatbot that can take notes. It's both and neither. Instead of asking questions to Gemini, only for it to find an answer from the ether of the internet, NotebookLM will only search through the sources that you provide it. It's a dead simple concept that feels like one of the most practical uses of AI, giving way to the perfect study buddy for classes or work. And Google didn't stop there. Now it can do so much more, and will reward your poking around to see what it can do for you. And features like its impressive Audio Overviews have since trickled down into Gemini itself, allowing it to be used in a much wider set of Google's products. With Google I/O 2025 just around the corner, we wouldn't be surprised if even more features were added. Below, we'll cover some of NotebookLM's most interesting features and use cases to help you get started. For more, don't miss our hands-on with Gemini Live's camera mode: AI with eyes. What is NotebookLM? NotebookLM is a Gemini-powered note-taking and research assistant tool that can be used in a multitude of ways. It all starts with the sources you feed it, whether they're webpage URLs, YouTube videos or audio clips, allowing you to pull multiple sources together into a cohesive package and bring some organization to your scattered thoughts or notes. The most obvious use case for NotebookLM is using it for school or work. Think of it -- you've kept up with countless classes and typed notes down for every one and even perhaps recorded some lectures. Sifting through everything individually can eventually get you to some semblance of understanding, but what if you could get them to work together? Once you've uploaded your sources, Gemini will get to work to create an overall summary of the material. From there, you can begin asking Gemini questions about specific topics on the sources and information from the sources will be displayed in an easy-to-understand format. This alone may be enough for some people just looking to get the most out of their notes, but that's really just scratching the surface. Best on the desktop browser, with apps on the way NotebookLM's three panel layout NotebookLM/Screenshot by Blake Stimac NotebookLM was originally designed for the desktop browser and that's currently the best way to experience it. You can access it from your mobile browser but it can be cumbersome. There's currently no app available for NotebookLM but one is close to launching. In fact, you can preregister to be notified when it's available for iOS and Android devices right now. Broken into a three-pane layout, NotebookLM consists of Source, Chat and Studio panels. Both the Source and Studio panels are collapsible, so you can have a full-screen chat experience if you so choose. While the Source and Chat panels are pretty self-explanatory, the Studio panel is where magic can happen, (though some of the features can also be created directly from the Chat panel). This is where you can get the most out of your NotebookLM experience. Below are some highlights of what you can do. Audio Overviews If you didn't hear about NotebookLM when it was first announced, you likely did when Audio Overviews were released for it. Once you have at least once source uploaded, you can then opt to generate an Audio Overview, which will provide a "deep dive" on the source material. These overviews are created by none other than Gemini and it's not just a quick summary of your material in audio format -- it's a full-blown podcast with two "hosts" that break down complex topics into easy to understand pieces of information. They're incredibly effective, too, often asking each other questions to dismantle certain topics. The length of an Audio Overview will vary depending on how much material there is to go over and the complexity of the topic -- though I'm sure there are other factors at play. In my testing, a very short piece of text created a 5-minute audio clip, where two lengthier and more dense Google Docs I uploaded created a 18-minute Overview. You can interact with your AI podcasters It gets even better. Last December, NotebookLM got a new design and new ways to interact with Audio Overviews. If you want to guide the conversation so that key points are covered, the customize button will allow you to do just that. Type in your directive and then generate your Audio Overview. Now, if you want to make this feature even more interactive, you can choose the Interactive mode, which is still in beta, to join the conversation. The clip will play and if you have a particular question in response to something that's said, you can click the join button. Once you do, the speakers will pause and acknowledge your presence and ask you to chime in with thoughts or questions, and you'll get a reply. I wanted to try something a little different, so I threw in the lyrics of a song as the only source, and the AI podcast duo began to dismantle the motivations and emotions behind the words. I used the join feature to point out a detail in the lyrics they didn't touch on and the two began to dissect what my suggestion meant in the context of the writing. They then began linking the theme to other portions of the text. It was impressive to watch: They handled the emotional weight of the song so well, and tactfully at that. Mind Maps Generating a Mind Map is just one of several powerful features from NotebookLM Google/Screenshot by Blake Stimac I'd heard interesting things about NotebookLM's Mind Map feature, but I wanted to go in blind when I tried it out, so I did a separate test. I took roughly 1,500 words of Homer's Odyssey and made that my only source. I then clicked the Mind Map button and within seconds an interactive and categorical breakdown of the text was displayed for me to poke around in. Many of the broken down sections had subsections for deeper dives, some of which were dedicated to single lines for dissection. Clicking on a category or end-point of the map will open the chat with a prefilled prompt. I chose to dive into the line, "now without remedy" and once clicked, the chat portion of NotebookLM reopened with the prefilled prompt of, "Discuss what these sources say about Now without remedy, in the larger context of [the subsection] Alternative (worse)." The full line was displayed, including who it was said by, what it was in response to and any motivations (or other references) for why the line was said in the text. Study guides and more If the combination of all that Audio Overviews and Mind Maps could do sounds like everything a student might need for the perfect study buddy, NotebookLM has a few other features that will solidify it in that place. Study guides After you've uploaded a source, you can create a quick study guide based on the material that will automatically provide a document with a quiz, potential essay questions, a glossary of key terms and answers for the quiz at the bottom. And if you want, you can even convert the study guide into a source for your notebook. FAQs Whether you're using it for school or want to create a FAQ page for your website, there's a NotebookLM button that will generate a series of potentially common questions based on your sources. Timeline If you're looking for a play by play type of timeline, it's built right in. Creating a timeline for the Odyssey excerpt broke down main events in a bulleted list and placed them based on the times mentioned in the material. If an event takes place at an unspecified time, it will appear at the top of the timeline stating so. A cast of characters for reference is also generated below the timeline of events. Briefing document The briefing document is just what it sounds like, giving you a quick snapshot of the key themes and important events to get someone up to speed. This will include specific quotes from the source and their location. A summary of the material is also created at the bottom of the document. If you need more from NotebookLM, consider upgrading Most individuals may never have the need to pay for NotebookLM, as the free feature is robust enough. But if you're using it for work and need to be able to add more sources or the option to share your notebook with multiple people, NotebookLM Plus is worth considering. It gives you more of everything while introducing more customization, additional privacy and security features as well as analytics. For more, don't miss Google's AI Mode is expanding to everyone.
