I first heard about AI-generated podcasts about a year ago I guess. I have pretty mixed feelings about it — I’d rather listen to real human hosts with a passion for their subject. But I also read that graduate students were using it to summarize papers, doing things like listening to them while doing the dishes or out for a walk. Knowing how impossible it is to keep up with the latest developments in science, I was intrigued by this, so I gave it a try, using Google’s NotebookLM.

The results were fairly mixed. With technical papers, I didn’t feel like I gained much insight or understanding. The podcast virtual hosts engaged in a lot of “puffery” — they tend to exaggerate the significance or importance of things. Everything is a “big deal” and a “game changer.” Still, it was interesting. I’ve long wished there was a podcast where the hots would geek out on the latest research in hydrology and earth science.

On a whim, I pointed it to the Help/About page, and asked Notebook LM to create an “Audio Overview.” It is actually pretty good.

On a second whim, I asked it for an infographic. It’s also not terrible.