For the first episode in our new miniseries about the impact of AI in our everyday lives, we chat with Steven Johnson, a longtime author who has spent the last couple of years at Google working on an AI research and note-taking tool called NotebookLM. We talk about whether AI can really help us learn better, how Google has tried to make NotebookLM more accurate and helpful, and whether AI-generated podcasts are the future of learning. Further reading:<ul>
<li><a href="https://notebooklm.google.com/">NotebookLM</a></li>
<li><a href="https://adjacentpossible.substack.com/about">Steven Johnson’s website / newsletter</a></li>
<li>From Steven Johnson: <a href="https://adjacentpossible.substack.com/p/listening-to-the-algorithm">Listening To The Algorithm</a>
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/10/23718707/google-io-2023-project-tailwind-personal-ai-notebook">Google teases Project Tailwind — a prototype AI notebook that learns from your documents</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.theverge.com/23845856/google-notebooklm-tailwind-ai-notes-research">Google’s AI-powered note-taking app is the messy beginning of something great</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/11/24242138/google-notebook-llm-ai-fake-podcasts-research">Google is using AI to make fake podcasts from your notes</a></li>
<li> </li>
</ul>Email us at <a href="mailto:vergecast@theverge.com">vergecast@theverge.com</a> or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a>

They think they’re building God

The Vergecast is the flagship podcast from The Verge about small gadgets, Big Tech, and everything in between. Every Friday, hosts Nilay Patel and David Pierce hang out and make sense of the week’s most important technology news. And every Tuesday, David leads a selection of The Verge’s expert staffers in an exploration of how gadgets and software affect our lives – and which ones you should bring into yours.