Google has released its AI-supported research and writing assistant NotebookLM for users in around 200 countries outside the US.
NotebookLM works in a similar way to ChatGPT from OpenAI or Co-Pilot from Microsoft, but only uses sources specified by the user for its training.
Google says NotebookLM works as a closed system, meaning that it only analyses the information contained in the uploaded sources and does not access the internet to evaluate additional data.
Users of NotebookLM can upload various file formats as sources, including text files, PDF documents and Google Docs. New additions include presentations (Google Slides) and website addresses that can be used as sources.
Unveiling the online application a year ago at the I/O developer conference in the US, Google touted it as a "virtual research assistant that can summarize facts, explain complex ideas, and brainstorm new connections."
Since then, the tool has been continuously expanded. NotebookLM can now process up to 25 million words per notebook and allows users to create up to 100 notebooks. While the application was initially only available in English, 100 languages are now supported.