Raiza Martin is a senior product manager for AI at Google Labs, where she leads the team behind NotebookLM, an AI-powered research tool that includes a delightful podcast-on-demand feature called “Audio Overviews.” NotebookLM started as a 20% project and has grown into a product that’s spreading across social media and has a Discord server with over 60,000 users. Raiza previously worked on AI Test Kitchen and has a background in startups, payments, and ads. In our conversation, we discuss: • The origin story of NotebookLM • The future road map for NotebookLM • How Google Labs operates differently from the rest of Google • The development of the “Audio Overviews” feature • Key metrics and growth of NotebookLM • Stories about collaborating with author Steven Johnson • Navigating potential misuse of AI technology — Brought to you by: • Explo — Embed customer-facing analytics in your product: https://explo.co/lenny • Sprig⁠⁠ — Build products for people, not data points: https://sprig.com/getstarted?utm_source=lenny&utm_medium=podcast • Sidebar — Accelerate your career by surrounding yourself with extraordinary peers: https://www.sidebar.com/lenny?utm_source=lennys&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=waitlist&utm_content=3 Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/googles-notebooklm-raiza-martin Where to find Raiza Martin: • X: https://x.com/raiza_abubakar • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whatsaraiza/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to NotebookLM (05:43) The genesis of NotebookLM (08:08) Innovative features and use cases (18:52) Building a startup culture within Google (24:28) Expanding user demographics (27:30) The product roadmap (32:18) Other use cases (36:11) Collaborating with Steven Johnson (42:49) Ensuring ethical AI (46:06) Future directions and user engagement Referenced: • NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google/ • AI Test Kitchen: https://aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com/ • Steven Johnson on X: https://x.com/stevenbjohnson • Gemini Pro: https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini/pro/ • Usama Bin Shafqat on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ushafqat/ • NotebookLM’s Discord server: https://discord.com/invite/Az2N7BwV7r?sjid=10560123093044576704-NA • Josh Woodward on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshwoodward/ • Andrej Karpathy’s website: https://karpathy.ai/ • Histories of Mysteries on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3K4LRyMCP44kBbiOziwJjb • NotebookLM — Analyzing Poop & Fart written 1,000 times — Creating meaning from the meaningless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftg7UC3CGjc • Reddit thread about the fake chicken.pdf: https://www.reddit.com/r/notebooklm/comments/1fwz5eh/the_google_podcast_duo_get_almost_9_minutes_out/ • Steven Johnson’s tweet about his 8K quotes: https://x.com/stevenbjohnson/status/1840844268065456456 • Readwise: https://readwise.io/ • How We Got to Now: https://www.pbs.org/show/how-we-got-now/ • “A.I. Is Mastering Language. Should We Trust What It Says?”: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/magazine/ai-language.html • AI Podcast Hosts Discover They’re AI, Not Human — NotebookLM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR4dRtzFvxM Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.