In a previous post, I talked about using Gemini to explore the impact of my research. Today, I am going to explore that research with a different tool:  Notebook LM. The big difference between Gemini and Notebook LM is that Gemini searches the web, and as I found, not always so successfully, while Notebook LM looks just at what you ask it to.

So I did an experiment. I put the same paper I used for the Gemini experiment, a report I am working on right now (to be released soon, so watch this space), the recently published UK national food strategy, some recent research on Food Banks by the Trussell Trust, and a link to the food ladders discussion in this blog. One of the features of Notebook LM is that it can produce a video summary of the things you ask it to look at and present it in a narrated slide show. Here is what it produced. What do you think?

At present, you don’t have the option to change the accent (sorry, and that is not me). I think it does quite a good job of juggling across a number of quite dense sources. If you want to digest things quickly, it’s a good option. There are some nuances that are missing, but this seems reasonable for a 6-minute video. What is missing from this is what happens at rung three, and where we go once we leave the food club? I’m not sure we’ve cracked that one yet.

If you want a deeper dive, Google’s Notebook LM also allows you to ask for an audio overview that lasts about 20 minutes. It does this in a rather entertaining interview style. It is worth trying out. You still need to read the documents to get the nuance, though.