Notebook LM: A Powerful and Useful Tool

As the Immediate Past Chair of the Technology Committee of the Conference of Chief Judges in Illinois, I endeavored to bring advances in technology to the judiciary in Illinois through the chief judges of the 25 judicial circuits of the State of Illinois. While also serving as a member of the AI Task Force of the Illinois Judicial Conference, by chance, I learned about Notebook LM, which is a “free” product offered by Google. (There, credit goes to Judge Jeffrey Goffinet and a colleague of his in the First Judicial Circuit, for the introduction.)

So you know, this author has no connection to this product or Google. In fact, unlike many, this author does not use Google that much, but on occasion, Google cannot be avoided. As with any freebie, to quote an anonymous information technologist, if the product is free, you are the product or something along those lines. Users beware.

In sum, Notebook LM enables users to generate things like summaries and podcasts through downloads. I was introduced to this product by listening to a podcast on the website of the First Judicial Circuit. I understand it took moments to generate the podcast with a female voice and a male voice discussing the First Judicial Circuit for about five minutes or so. With that example, I similarly used it with the website we have been developing in the 22nd Judicial Circuit, to produce a podcast, which lasted a little over eight minutes. Through this podcast, we were able to discover three mistakes in a recently developed website, which were highlighted through the podcast. They were based on inputs that had changed. This product enabled us to hone the details to make our website even better.

Otherwise, this product can take documents and summarize them and focus just on what you give it, to limit exposure, as far as I can tell.

This product is worth your exploration. To use an academic term, play with it and see if it might help you in your practice.        

Judge Mike Chmiel is a long-time member of the ISBA, former Chair of what is now its Commercial Banking, Collections, and Bankruptcy Section Council, and one of its current newsletter editors. He serves as the Immediate Past Chief Judge of the 22nd Judicial Circuit of the State of Illinois, serves on the AI Task Forces of the Illinois Judicial Conference and the Illinois State Bar Association, and has devoted certain attention to AI as a coordinator, presenter, and participant in various programs on AI. He can be reached at mjchmiel@22ndcircuit.illinoiscourts.gov.