November 5, 2024

Do you keep in mind CliffsNotes?

The enduring yellow-and-black books summarized all method of literary works. They digested the plot and detailed the themes and symbolism. CliffsNotes referred to them as “examine guides,” however many used them to get round studying the full-length model.

(Enjoyable reality: CliffsNotes began in 1958 with a complete line of Shakespeare summaries and continues publishing at this time.)

Critics of CliffsNotes argue that the floor evaluation loses lots of the nuances and themes of the work. Academics and others thought-about utilizing CliffsNotes as dishonest. However that wasn’t actually what many college students have been pondering once they learn the CliffsNotes the evening earlier than an project was due.

CliffsNotes got here again in our thoughts with the most recent conversations about NotebookLM from Google. It’s taking the enterprise world by storm, so we requested Robert Rose, CMI’s chief technique advisor, for his take. Learn on or watch this video:

Is NotebookLM the twenty first century CliffsNotes? Does a rose by another title scent as candy? What would NotebookLM ask if it might converse?

What’s up with Google’s AI app?

Like most issues from Google, NotebookLM continues to be in “experimental mode.” Billing it as a notetaking app at its December 2023 U.S. launch, Google has added new options previously 10 months and it has a rising fan base.

Because it stands at this time, NotebookLM provides a technique to discuss to and get summaries of paperwork, movies, and audio recordsdata uploaded into its system. It does remind me of a way more subtle and superior model of CliffsNotes.

Customers can add the doc, or supply, as Google calls it, then have NotebookLM summarize it, create a examine information, critique it, or reply questions on it in a chat-style interface. I’m blown away by how simple and pure it’s to “discuss to my paperwork.”

However the characteristic launched in September that has all people frothy is the Audio Overview. It outputs the doc as a pleasant podcast-style audio file. The AI hosts — an unnamed man and lady who sound younger and energetic — give an informal back-and-forth overview. To place it into an expert sports activities metaphor, the male AI does the play-by-play commentating, and the feminine AI provides the colour commentary and perception by asking questions or offering solutions.

It’s spectacular, particularly because the expertise provides one in every of my favourite new phrases — disfluencies — into their speech. The expertise consists of false begins, filler phrases, ums, ahhs, likes — all these pure language vocals that make the hosts sound extra human. They actually sound like two younger individuals chatting about your supply doc and what all of it means.

Just a few individuals have proclaimed that NotebookLM can automate enterprise podcasts with these AI personalities. However is that actually one of the best use case? Why would you worth “somebody” else doing it the place the one inventive enter is the doc you’re curating? It looks as if a skinny moat of differentiation and worth.

Does NotebookLM produce one thing actually totally different? 

Is one thing totally different at play with NotebookLM that may add precise usefulness?

Based mostly on my experimentations with it, the reply is sure. It suits with the broader themes about AI that I’ve mentioned recently, and thus the newest CliffsNotes metaphor.

I uploaded the large bucket of numbers from CMI’s 2025 B2B content material advertising outlook that can be launched subsequent week. I requested it to jot down a abstract. As you’ll count on, it gave a simple synopsis in about two pages of bullet factors of the primary matters and outcomes. But it surely additionally wrote a bit with key takeaways and actionable insights.

It appears spectacular. Nonetheless, after getting past the magnificent language meeting, I noticed that the takeaways and insights aren’t insightful or clever. They merely spotlight the ends in a book-report-like format.

The important thing actions embrace “prioritize technique and objective setting,” “embrace data-driven resolution making,” and “spend money on expertise and coaching.” Whereas all that sounds good, it’s the equal of studying a report about one of the best practices for baking a cake and the important thing actions embrace “begin with contemporary components,” “be sure to combine all the pieces properly,” and “guarantee your oven is working.”

So, I requested NotebookLM for one key takeaway a marketer ought to get from studying this report. Nicely, it couldn’t give me only one, which is sensible, given it’s constructed to summarize. It gave me three, one in every of which was “high performing B2B entrepreneurs attribute their success to a deep understanding of their target market and the creation of high-quality content material.”

Once more, that sounds spectacular, however coming again to the cake-baking report analogy, it’s the equal of claiming, “The perfect bakers attribute their success to the care they put into studying the right way to bake a cake and the creation of high-quality truffles.” 

So, then I attempted the audio characteristic since that’s probably the most thrilling facet of NotebookLM. I requested it to offer a podcast-style audio overview. The eight-minute overview was spectacular. However once more, it simply delivered an outline of the outcomes with none insights. The hosts made feedback like, “Yeah, good high quality content material is tough to make,” and “Wow, B2B entrepreneurs are annoyed on the high quality of their outcomes.”

These outcomes mimic what I see in all sorts of generative AI options as a result of that’s what they’re constructed to do. It’s all plot and no story. Generative AI instruments are incredible at recognizing patterns, summarizing, structuring and offering the what-happened a part of any story. It’s very like the twenty first century model of CliffsNotes. The magic occurs when a human combines their expertise to look past the “what occurred” and derive or assign that means to it.

Is that this The Highway Not Taken?

I’ve two ideas. The primary is that NotebookLM’s worth isn’t diminished by its summarizing emphasis; it reminds you of the device’s potential worth. If you need a literal abstract of a doc, it may be extraordinarily useful. If you need an eight-minute audio model summarizing a 50-page company earnings report, a analysis examine, a technical doc, supply code, or virtually anything, it’s actually precious. It might act as a examine information while you don’t have time to eat the entire doc.

However that first thought lives in rigidity with the second, and it’s the identical warning CliffsNotes makes about its merchandise. Worthwhile friction exists while you learn, eat, and discover the that means within the work. You could acknowledge that it’s higher to learn the unique generally, so you should use your expertise, empathy, creativity, and information (largely your knowledge) to attach the unobvious dots within the work. That’s what usually results in precious insights, and you could not discover them except you learn the whole work.

Considered one of my favourite poems is The Highway Not Taken by Robert Frost. I requested NotebookLM for a abstract, and it gave what CliffsNotes would have. Then, I requested for the foremost takeaway, and NotebookLM gave the identical lesson that tens of millions of speeches at commencement, tons of of tv commercials, and enterprise books have concluded: “(T)aking the street much less traveled can result in a extra distinctive and fulfilling life.”

Besides that’s not what the poem is about. Should you learn the poem fastidiously, completely, and a number of instances, you understand that isn’t the purpose. The title is The Highway Not Taken, not The Highway I Took. The poem is about what the writer didn’t do, not what he did. Frost says clearly the roads are largely an identical and there’s no distinction between the 2. Additional, the writer says sooner or later he’ll be telling this story with a sigh, that means he’s not essentially joyful in regards to the much less traveled street or not taking the another traveled. He leaves the reader with the ambiguous, “That has made all of the distinction.” The poem itself is a commentary that life decisions are what you make of them. There isn’t a proper street to journey. The distinction occurs after you select.

So, for those who select the NotebookLM street, don’t see it as a crutch to save lots of you from the friction of creating that means from the complexities and issues of concepts. See it as a companion that may make it easier to transfer extra fluidly from concept to concept and spend the time on those that actually matter.

That’s your selection.

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Cowl picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content material Advertising and marketing Institute