Google's NotebookLM Evolves: New AI-Powered Study Tools Revolutionize Learning

NotebookLM Can Now Make Flashcards and Quizzes to Help You Study

If it wasn't obvious that NotebookLM is shaping up to be the ultimate AI tool for school, it should be now. And Google has more to share for the fall season. On Monday, Google announced its latest NotebookLM features, including the option to generate flashcards, quizzes, new reports and more. Brand-new audio formats for the popular Audio Overviews feature were also released just last week. What sets NotebookLM apart from other AI tools is that it will only rely on the source material you provide it to answer questions or generate content. This makes it incredibly useful for school work. Just throw in your class notes or lesson plan, and let NotebookLM break everything down for you. Here's what's rolling out to NotebookLM, starting today. Don't miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source. If you like to study in short bursts rather than having a lengthy study guide, try NotebookLM's flashcards. If you need to remember core concepts or specific times, dates, people or something of the sort, these quick hitters are here to help. You can customize the number of flashcards (fewer, standard, more) and the difficulty of the questions (easy, medium, hard) with just a couple of clicks. And if you want to focus on just one part of the source material, you can specify the subject or the front of the cards to be shorter for memorization purposes. Quizzes are just what they sound like and are perfect if you're in the mood for testing your knowledge on a particular subject. Like Flashcards, you'll have the option to customize the number of questions and the difficulty level. After finishing the quiz, you'll receive your score and have the option of reviewing the quiz again. NotebookLM users have long been able to generate study guides and briefing docs based on uploaded sources, but more options will soon be available. Once rolled out, you'll be able to generate custom reports based on your own prompts, blog posts and more. Clicking the Reports button in NotebookLM's Studio tab will open a new view and a format section with four options to Create Your Own, Briefing Doc, Study Guide and Blog Post. Below that, four AI-generated formatting options will be available, specific to your sources. Chatting with Gemini within NotebookLM also received an upgrade. Users can change the conversation style responses to options like "Analyst" or "Guide," and you can customize the length of the responses you receive, too. Google has partnered with OpenStax, a publisher of open education resources, to offer six new public Notebooks based on peer-reviewed academic books. These six titles are in addition to the other public Notebooks released in partnership with publications, researchers and nonprofits.

NotebookLM just rolled out its most powerful features yet, and you'll want to try them right away

Google's AI-powered research assistant, NotebookLM, is simply one of the best AI productivity tools there currently is. Period. Though it first started out as an experimental offering from Google Labs and had limited features like getting a quick summary of a Google Doc, asking questions about it without hallucinations (thanks to its source-grounded nature), and generating ideas for you, the tool's goal was to help people learn faster. Fast forward to today, NotebookLM has a range of features designed to help you study and work quicker and smarter. This includes the ability to generate podcast-style discussions called Audio Overviews, Khan Academy-like Video Overviews, Mind Maps, and more. Today, Google is expanding that set of features with its biggest update yet, and trust me on this: it's about to completely change the way you study and work -- and you need to try them out right away. NotebookLM introduces flashcard and quizzes As announced via a blog post on The Keyword, Google is adding multiple new features to NotebookLM, including flashcards, quizzes, redesigned reports, a Learning Guide mode, and more Featured Notebooks. That's a lot to take in at once, so let's quickly break down everything that's new. Flashcards and quizzes are two features that NotebookLM's own team has hinted at through recent X posts, and we've been expecting them for quite some time now. With the click of a button, NotebookLM can now turn any sources you've uploaded into flashcards and quizzes. If you're a student who relies heavily on active recall and are tired of spending time manually creating practice sets, this feature is about to be a game-changer. Like all of NotebookLM's features, flashcards and quizzes will be grounded entirely in the sources you've uploaded to your notebook. You can also customize the topic for both features, set the difficulty level, and choose if you'd like to get fewer or more cards. You also get new custom reports and a personal learning assistant Next up, Google also announced redesigned reports, including a new Blog Post format and the ability to create custom formats. @TestingCatalog recently spotted this feature in the works, and it's even better than what they previewed. When you hit the Reports button in the Studio panel, you'll be able to choose from four formats: Custom, Briefing Doc, Study Guide, and Blog Post. NotebookLM will also now "dynamically suggest [report] options based on the theme, topic, or industry mentioned in your sources." NotebookLM is also getting a new "Learning Guide" option that works similarly to ChatGPT's Study Mode and Gemini's Guided Learning mode, and acts like a personal tutor. Instead of directly telling you an answer to a question when you ask it, the mode will help you break down problems step by step and adapt the explanations to your learning needs. Finally, NotebookLM has partnered with OpenStax, the "leading provider of free, peer-reviewed textbooks," and has added new curated Featured Notebooks (which are essentially interactive, ready-to-use public NotebookLM notebooks). These include subjects that give students access to high-quality, trusted content right inside NotebookLM. Flashcards, quizzes, and reports will start rolling out today and will expand to more users over the next week. Additionally, the Learning Guide option will begin rolling out to all users starting next week.

NotebookLM moves one step closer to replacing your real-life tutor

While AI, in general, is marketed to enhance learning, NotebookLM has proven to especially boost understanding of concepts and enhance productivity. Its advantages are not limited to just students, and Google recently announced new tools that make learning more adaptive and fun. Google is bringing six new resources to NotebookLM right in time for the Back to School season. This includes new options to generate multiple-choice quizzes and flashcards from all uploaded notes or documents, enabling students to learn through active participation. Besides simple quizzing, the features also get an Explain button to expand on the correct answer. ChatGPT's Study Together mode also offers similar functionality to help you learn better.

Google's NotebookLM Just Got More Features

NotebookLM, Google's AI-powered research and learning assistant, has added a bunch of new features. The platform can act like a tutor now, with Flashcards, Quizzes, a redesigned Reports function, and a "Learning Guide" conversational style. One of the biggest new features is the Flashcards and Quizzes, which give you a way to memorize content and use self-assessment. By just uploading documents, like lecture notes, research papers, or work reports, you can now instantly generate interactive study aids. The AI-generated flashcards and multiple-choice quizzes are entirely grounded in the provided sources, which prevents the tool from hallucinating or pulling in external, unverified information. You also have the flexibility to customize the number of cards or questions and set the difficulty level between Easy, Medium, or Hard to tailor the experience to your specific needs. A particularly cool feature in both Flashcards and Quizzes is the explain button. Tapping this gives a detailed overview, clarifying a flashcard definition or explaining why a quiz question was answered incorrectly. These explanations are accompanied by citations, pointing back to the original source material so you can confirm the tool's accuracy. In addition to the existing "Briefing doc" and "Study Guide" formats, a new "Blog Post" option has been added, which is a new way to distill key insights into a highly readable article. The system now suggests report formats based on the themes and topics in a user's sources. For example, if you upload a scholarly article on economic theory, NotebookLM might suggest a glossary of key terms or a magazine-style explainer. If you upload a short story draft, it could suggest a character analysis or a plot critique. My favorite new feature that cements NotebookLM's role as a personal tutor is the Learning Guide's conversational style. This mode encourages a more participatory and Socratic-like interaction. Instead of simply providing answers, the Learning Guide asks probing, open-ended questions, helping users to break down complex problems step-by-step. It adapts its explanations to the user's needs, which will give you a deeper understanding of the subject matter. This feature mimics the one-on-one guidance of a human tutor, making the learning process less about rote memorization and more about genuine comprehension. NotebookLM has also partnered with OpenStax, a leading provider of free, peer-reviewed textbooks. This collaboration introduces interactive notebooks. The initial six subjects: Biology, AP Biology, Introduction to Business, Chemistry, Psychology, and Principles of Management, will give a solid foundation with trusted sources from the outset. There's also a new debate, brief, and critique audio option. NotebookLM already had the podcast-style "deep dive" audio, which repeated information every few minutes or so in between fluff, but now it has audio that will actually help you learn about a subject by summarizing, giving reasoning, and playing devil's advocate against conventional thinking. NotebookLM is the only reason I pay for a Google AI subscription. I highly recommend it for people to learn or research for fun, like I do. This will essentially make it a much better way to learn anything you want. I'm pretty excited about using these new features, and it seems like they're rolling out now on the official website for free and subscribed users. Source: Google

6 ways to use NotebookLM to master any subject

Turning information into knowledge is challenging, whether you are preparing for an exam, starting a new project or exploring a new interest. That's why we built NotebookLM as your personalized AI partner for research and thinking. It helps you make connections and understand complex material faster. This summer, we introduced learning features like Video Overviews, which students worldwide have used for everything from understanding a topic quickly to preparing for exams. Today, we are introducing new features and public notebooks that transform passive reading into active learning. Here's what's new. Actively engaging with material is key to learning. NotebookLM now instantly creates study aids from your documents, including lecture notes, research papers or work reports. These interactive tools are grounded entirely in your sources.

You Can Now Generate Flashcards and Quizzes on NotebookLM

Google says Flashcards can help users memorise key terms and concepts Google's NotebookLM is getting several new artificial intelligence (AI) features. On Monday, the Mountain View-based tech giant announced two new features, redesigned tools, and a partnership to help users make the most of the learning platform. The two new features, dubbed Flashcards and Quiz, are designed to let users test their knowledge of the source through interactive tests. Alongside, Reports and Learning Guides are being redesigned to offer new customisation tools. Interestingly, the new features are being rolled out just a week after the company added new Audio Overviews formats. You Can Now Create Quizzes and Flashcards on NotebookLM In a blog post, the tech giant highlighted the new features currently rolling out to NotebookLM users. The company said the new features will transform users' passive reading into active learning. With the Flashcards feature, the AI generates multiple cue cards with questions. Users can read the question and try to answer it. If they struggle, they can tap a button to turn the card around and see the answer. Additionally, an "explain" button also generates an explanation for the answer, allowing users to learn about the concept in depth. Quiz is a similar feature that uses AI to generate multiple-choice questions about the sources. Users can then take a quiz and guess the right answer for each question. If they select the right option, it is highlighted in green, and the wrong answer is highlighted in red. The AI also shows the right answer if the user chooses the wrong option. Similar to Flashcards, it also comes with an "explain" button. Coming to Reports, Google has now added a new output format dubbed Blog Post. It generates an in-depth analysis of the sources in a blog-style write-up. The new option joins the existing Briefing Doc, Study Guide, and Create Your Own options. Additionally, now when users click on Reports, they will also see four new format suggestions generated using AI. These will be more aligned with the topic and the sources. Finally, the Learning Guide feature is also being added to NotebookLM. Instead of giving answers, this new feature encourages participation by asking probing and open-ended questions. This way, the feature can break down a topic in a step-by-step manner and help the user learn instead of getting ready-made answers. This new chat customisation feature will be available starting next week. Notably, Google highlighted that it has partnered with OpenStax to bring new interactive notebooks based on its popular academic titles. Currently, the available interactive notebooks are on the topics of biology, introduction to business, chemistry, psychology, and principles of management.