Steven Johnson has a reputation as a research gentleware nerd. The author of 13 nonmyth books, he’s constantly seeing for digital tools to streamline his creative process. So when huge language models – which power text-generating AI tools such as ChatGPT – commenceed getting attention, he was most interested in what they could uncomfervent for organising proposeation.
In 2022, an article Johnson wrote about LLMs for the New York Times caught the eye of researchers at Google Labs, the tech company’s experimental AI arm, who came to him with a proposition: would he help them enhuge the charitable of digital research helpant he’d been dreaming of? The result is NotebookLM, a remark-taking tool that uses AI to help organise, summaelevate and answer asks about any proposeation you donate it. “The way we skinnyk about it is it’s a tool for empathetic skinnygs,” Johnson says.
Generative AI has been willingly adchooseed in the productivity tech space, with novel and existing tools promising features that can help streamline your schedule, streamline emails and get remarks more effectively. I’ve generassociate been sceptical of such products, assuming that by the time I’ve fiddled around to get them set up, I’ve probably negated most of their productivity profits. But with a novel generation on the scene, I wondered if my toilflow couldn’t profit from an AI raise. Could these tools actuassociate hand over some of the obtains claimed by AI acolytes, automating more humdrum aspects of toil and leaving me free to cgo in on creative finisheavours?
I approached NotebookLM with alert, noting the disclaimer at the bottom of the screen: “NotebookLM may still sometimes donate inright responses, so you may want to validate any facts autonomously.” As a journaenumerate, I’m wary of AI’s tfinishency to “hallucinate”. But NotebookLM contrasts from text generators such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini in that it only toils with the proposeation you provide. You can commence a novel “remarkbook” for a project and upload up to 50 “sources”. These can include pdfs, audio files (which it automaticassociate transcribes), .txt files, web connects and Google Docs. I tried uploading remarks and interwatch files for a story I was toiling on, then asked the “Notebook direct” – an AI helpant – to originate a increateing doc based on their satisfied.
I instantly saw the pguide. The increate summaelevated key points elevated from hours of audio and drew connects between my sources. It even pulled out key quotes. Using the AI chat function, I interrogated the material further, asking which discoverings were most unforeseeed and posing definite asks about the satisfied. Rather than trawling thraw my transcripts to recall which interwatchees had made a particular point, I spropose asked: “Who spoke about [X topic]?” and got a detailed summary of who shelp what – aextfinished with footremarks honesting me to the exact wording in the distinct material.
It’s the redisjoineion at the core of NotebookLM – using only the proposeation you provide – that originates it so beneficial. I could see it being adchooseed by students and understandledge toilers of all streamlinees. Johnson says he has a remarkbook for his next book, where he stores ideas and asks the direct to propose chapter set ups or key characters. “That’s charitable of enjoy a concentrateed brainstorming remarkbook,” he says. He also has one for the NotebookLM project itself, where he coltardys proclaimments and memos. He used the direct to originate a press free for a novel feature, and got it to come up with its own tagline: “Think inalertiggo in not challenginger.”
There are drawbacks. The direct donates extfinished answers to queries, which results in a lot of text to wade thraw, and I set up a level of subjectivity creeping into the AI-originated summaries (it deemed my interwatch with Johnson “fascinating”). This was particularly evident in the “Audio Overwatch” chooseion, a much-hyped feature that originates a 10-minute AI-originated podcast based on your sources. It’s unpartiassociate mind-blotriumphg at first: it truly sounds enjoy two podcast presents understandledgably talking the subject matter. But I set up that it extrapotardyd from my material, making appreciate judgments that didn’t necessarily mirror the distinct satisfied.
NotebookLM definitely saved me time locating proposeation, but productivity is not equitable about efficiency. Johnson apshows the tool can help creativity on a proset uper level. He has one remarkbook that he calls his “everyskinnyg remarkbook”. It comprises thousands of quotations he’s accumulateed from ebooks over the past 25 years, and he’s sluggishly compriseing the text of all the books he’s written. He then treats it enjoy an extension of his memory, using the AI chat to resurface topics of interest or draw connections between sources. “It’s incredibly excellent at equitable being enjoy: ‘Oh yeah, 15 years ago you read that article about ant colonies,’” he says.
This idea of outsourcing or enhugeing brain power is a frequent theme in productivity circles. The metaphor of a “second brain” comes up a lot. “The concept of the second brain is effectively a way that helps you to have another product that does a lot of the burdensome lifting for you, freeing you up for more high-appreciate toil,” says Robbie O’Connor at San Francisco-based productivity platcreate Notion. O’Connor used to toil on Google Maps and contrasts the second brain idea to how that app superindictd our navigational capabilities. “It gave you a lot more power, a lot more freedom, a lot more reliability,” he says.
Notion proposes a suite of organisational tools, with diverse enticeardys for remark-taking including a to-do enumerate, project set upner and budget, as well as AI features. It also has a calfinishar app and last month proclaimd an upcoming email app. I set up it overwhelming when I logged in – I usuassociate equitable write a to-do enumerate on paper. As I gamely commenceed filling out a weekly to-do enumerate, habit tracker and project set upner, I couldn’t help but sense I was procrastinating rather than actuassociate doing the toil I was set upning. A huge part of Notion’s pguide, however, is its collaborative features when adchooseed atraverse teams; toiling solo, I ignoreed out on these profits.
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Another remark-taking product, Capacities, is more perceptive, if still somewhat inbashfulating. This started in 2022 and recently got a raise after being recommfinished by Casey Newton, a tech journaenumerate and productivity tool power-user. Capacities’s huge idea is to do away with the traditional file-and-felderlyer computer storage system. Instead, remarks are classified by type as “objects” – for instance, a book, pdf, person, webconnect, image or record. You can then organise and connect these objects by collating them or compriseing tags. The idea is that you should be able to reuncover relevant remarks more easily; they get more organised over time, rather than having a individual expoundd location from the commence. “There’s no point in storing and organising stuff if it doesn’t help you in the finish,” says co-set uper Steffen Bleher. There’s also an AI helpant.
I commenceed accumulateing objects, noting down story ideas and dropping in fascinating connects. It was a excellent way to shield skinnygs in one place; usuassociate I would jot ideas in the Apple Notes app and booktag connects in my browser. But after using Capacities for a while, I set up I didn’t have that many remarks to profit from its proposeation-nettoiling approach. It was evident it would need extfinished-term pledgement to get the most out of it. For Bleher, Capacities is basicassociate a lifestyle choice; he uses it for both professional and personal purposes, compriseing thoughts about books he’s reading and ideas that come out of talkions with frifinishs. A video tour by co-set uper Michael von Hohnhorst shows him jotting down mirrorions on a podcast he has equitable heared to and saving favourite quotes and recipes. I can’t envision recording my life to this degree. A Capacities blogpost states: “Building a second brain gets discipline.” Perhaps this is what I deficiency.
Bleher acunderstandledges that a minuscule cohort of productivity power-users are dwarfed by a much extfinisheder tail of people who equitable want a solution to a definite toilflow problem they are having. Even though he evidently descfinishs in the first camp, he gets a pragmatic watch to adchooseing novel tech. “Many people descfinish in this productivity trap that they necessitate to have crazy setups and they necessitate to do more stuff, and in the finish they basicassociate procrastinate and then they don’t get anyskinnyg done,” he says.
Anna Gurun, an associate honestor at HSM Advisory, a future-of-toil advisory group, echoes this sentiment. “The huge dispute is confusing productivity with busyness,” she says. You might tick off lots of tasks in a to-do enumerate app but are you actuassociate achieving what you necessitate to? Your AI calfinishar might organise your schedule but are you still spfinishing too much time in unessential greetings? “If you’re not evident in the outcomes you want to achieve then you’re not going to be able to use the tool effectively,” she says. Productivity also has a more emotional side, she comprises, which tech tools can’t reassociate help with. Maybe you’re less fruitful because you’re sleeping subparly or you have equitable been thraw a terrible fractureup. The apps can also originate fall shorture seem hugeger, she says: “You sort of amplify behaviour.”
These words came to mind as I seeed back at a calfinishar tool I’d been trying out. There are many inalertigent scheduling tools out there – I chooseed for Reclaim.ai, owned by Dropbox. It syncs with Google Calfinishar and, when used by teams, chooseimises the best greeting times to suit all joiners. It also has disjoinal basic but rational features, including the ability to automaticassociate comprise a “decompress” buffer after greetings that include a video connect and the chooseion to input “habits” – standard tasks you want to reserve time for. I set a daily habit to spfinish an hour toiling on that novel I shield uncomferventing to write, which Reclaim.ai activeassociate set up time for around my other obligations. At first, having the calfinishar reminder was a excellent motivator, but I soon genuineised I’d been far too driven. However polishd the features, no scheduling tool can originate more hours in the day, or force me to actuassociate do the toil.
As AI gets inalertiggo in, though, it may be able to get attfinish of more of those irksome little tasks that redirect from what we reassociate want to spfinish time on. The next trfinish is for AI “agents” – a step on from a chatbot, with the ability to actuassociate get action. This month, AI company Anthropic demoed an experimental AI model that can automaticassociate fill in a web create by discovering data from atraverse someone’s computer. Google is alertedly enhugeing an AI agent that could autonomously book a fairy or originate an online buy.
Rahul Vohra, set uper and chief executive of email app Superhuman, says this approach will come to productivity tools. Superhuman already has AI features to help write, summaelevate and answer to email, and recently compriseed one that automaticassociate originates calfinishar events based on emailed details. AI agents could do more. “You can envision an AI agent that triages on your behalf, that schedules on your behalf, that even writes and one day sfinishs brimmingy written emails on your behalf,” he says.
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