Google NotebookLM goes global with multilingual AI video summaries of your notes

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Google’s NotebookLM now supports Video Overviews in dozens of languagesThe upgrade gives Video Overviews the same language options as the Audio OverviewsNotebookLM creates its summaries from actual uploaded documentsGoogle’s NotebookLM first debuted its AI-powered research tool with Audio Overviews capable of making AI-produced 'podcasts' with digital hosts. The logical extension into Video Overviews followed, with a synthetic voice accompanied by a series of slides that include text and illustrations. However, that capability was only available in English until now.NotebookLM Video Overviews are now available in more than 80 languages. For most people, that translates to translatable versions of video walkthroughs based on your uploaded notes and linked source materials. The AI professor is already there and is now a multilingual expert as they present your own content in everything from Tamil to Polish and beyond.These aren’t AI summaries scraped from the web or hallucinated based on a vague prompt. NotebookLM is grounded in the actual material you upload. Everything the AI says, in video or audio, is pulled directly from your documents, not from generic training data.Of course, the video in this context isn't a cinematic masterpiece. The slides are not fully animated explainers. This isn’t TikTok for term papers; it’s more like PowerPoint for people who don’t want to make PowerPoints. The goal is clarity, not spectacle.Global AI videoThat's not the only global upgrade to NotebookLM, though. While Audio Overviews had been available in many languages recently, they were limited to brief highlights. Now, everyone gets the complete audio AI experience as an alternative to the video option.For those who might want to read a white paper while driving or cooking, this is enormously practical. It won’t win a Grammy, but it might just help you understand a textbook or complex report. Professionals working internationally could use it to summarize a week’s worth of meeting transcripts as shareable videos or audio recaps from Catalan to Portuguese. No need to rely on a colleague’s English comprehension.If you want to see how AI can digest and explain your collection of academic papers, blog posts, and YouTube videos, you can produce a narrated video by uploading your sources as usual, then clicking on the Video Overview button. Shortly, a video of approximately seven minutes will be ready for you to share, download, or use as you wish.That’s not to say this solves everything. The AI can still struggle with nuance, for instance. But the reliability of the presentations is valuable on its own. Now, they just look good too.You might also likeI tried using NotebookLM’s new AI Video Overviews and ended up with some usefully informative, but rather dull PowerPoint presentationsGoogle will turn those long documents into your next favorite podcastI fed NotebookLM a 218-page research paper on string theory and the podcast results were mind-blowing