You can now give NotebookLM more instructions - here's why that's a game changer

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Google upgraded NotebookLM's performance, key features, and security. Users can now tell chat how to interpret their documents. All users can access these features by next week. Google's NotebookLM is one of our favorite AI tools, thanks to its organizational features and workflow improvements. However, one of the tool's weaknesses thus far has been that users couldn't control how the integrated chatbot communicated and organized their workflow documents. Also: Google's NotebookLM now lets you customize your AI podcasts in tone and length In a blog post published Wednesday, Google said users can now customize chat to adopt a specific role, voice, or goal, further tailoring their experience. How it works Users can click the configuration icon in the chat feature and explain how they want their chat to behave. Google's examples range from asking chat to treat the user like a PhD candidate, asking probing questions and identifying pitfalls in the user's argument, to asking chat to analyze provided information from three differing perspectives. Once your chat preference is set, it remains for the duration of your exchange. This feature should deliver more satisfying results and an in-depth understanding of the provided material. Better processing Google also announced an expansion of NotebookLM's processing capabilities, conversation context, and history. Gemini's 1 million token context window is now available on NotebookLM in all plans. Google said multiturn conversation capacity is now more than sixfold what it was, offering more relevant results over longer conversations. Also: Gemini for Home is finally rolling out for early access - here's how to try it first Users can also enjoy saved chat history, another long-awaited feature. Google said saved chats will help users finish long-term projects, allowing them to close a session and open it later without losing history. In shared notebooks, only you can see your chat history. Want more stories about AI? Sign up for our AI Leaderboard newsletter. Google said all of these upgrades will begin rolling out to all users, regardless of their NotebookLM subscription, over the next week.