Ian Flynn, a research assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and Sean Peters, a visiting assistant professor at Middlebury College, studied Google’s NotebookLM. In an October paper in the American Geophysical Union journal Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists, they describe how NotebookLM turns dense papers into podcast-style audio overviews.
The authors transformed three published papers about volcanism on Mars into NotebookLM audio. The three sources varied: a five-page letter with three figures and one table, a 29-page research paper with nine figures and four tables, and a 23-page review with 11 figures. Flynn and Peters found the overviews engaging, with plain language and useful analogies for teaching.
However, every overview contained errors, often appearing at the end of the audio. Some mistakes were clear overreach, such as inferring liquid water and possible life from a paper that did not claim those conclusions. The authors conclude that the audio overviews can be useful but are not a replacement for critically reading the original material.
Difficult words
- dense — having many details and hard to read
- overview — short summary that shows main pointsoverviews
- transform — change something into a different formtransformed
- volcanism — activity related to volcanoes and lava
- analogy — comparison that helps explain an ideaanalogies
- overreach — a claim that goes beyond the evidence
- infer — to form a conclusion from given informationinferring
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- Have you used audio summaries or podcasts to learn about a topic? When would you trust them?
- How would you check an audio summary for accuracy before using it for study?
- Do you prefer reading original papers or listening to summaries? Explain why.
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