On a daily basis, I devote 15-20 minutes to reviewing a wide range of higher education articles, research, and opinion pieces. Generally, this information is delivered to my inbox from various Higher Ed expert organizations (OLC, The Chronicle, Inside Higher Ed, CCDaily, etc.). However, when I wanted to take a deeper dive into AI literature and research, the scope of materials was overwhelming. I needed to get an overview understanding of several AI developing concepts, but I couldn’t devote hours of time to this task. Upon recommendation from a colleague, I explored NotebookLM and I’m currently using the free version of this tool. This tool fits my needs because it limits responses to prompt to ONLY the sources I input into the “notebook” – this can be files, websites, videos, copied text or Google Drive items. I really like how this provides a “picket fence” around the material I’m using and, in turn, the results I would get. I also like that this tool does not share out your prompts. So I think of this as an AI Assistant which sorts the information I locate (and now the latest version includes an embedded search box for faster locating) and provides me with an overview as either an audio file, a video or an infographic. I appreciate having all these options, but currently my main use is for aggregating research findings and opinions about the overall impact of AI on education, especially higher education. I still read the articles, but having Notebook “bundle” the data for me and suggest big summary ideas is very helpful for me. I did have a separate use case where I created a separate NotebookLM to create a video but I wasn’t happy with the results because it sounded too stilted and the visuals were not engaging.