Google: NotebookLM loses central employees, gets “call-in”

What’s next for NotebookLM? After the research tool with a podcast function, which had caused a lot of hype in the meantime, was expanded in mid-December to include a Plus service for intensive users and business customers, there are now major changes in the team of the service that was created as part of Google’s Lab department. They concern important personalities.

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Team of three founds their own start-up

Because three well-known NotebookLM employees have left Google next year, or have already done so – including project manager Raiza Martin. She’s starting “something new” with software expert Stephen Hughes and interaction designer Jason Spielman, both of whom previously worked with her at Google, as all three people said on LinkedIn. Martin and the other departures were employed at Google for a comparatively long period of time – Martin five and a half years, Spielman seven and a half and Hughes more than eight.

“Jason is one of my best employees, with whom I have worked in various teams for more than four years. (…) Stephen is exactly the kind of person I hoped to meet at Google: brilliant, thoughtful, creative – and a true 10x engineer,” says Martin. She didn’t reveal what exactly she planned to do – only that they were in an early phase of rebuilding. Given the ongoing AI boom in Silicon Valley, it shouldn’t have been difficult for ex-Googlers to raise a lot of venture capital. A placeholder website from Martin & Co. already exists. It’s called Werebuilding.ai (“We build AI”), but it doesn’t contain any other information except for a field to sign up for a newsletter. Steven Berlin Johnson, well-known non-fiction author and one of the initiators of NotebookLM, seems to still be working at Google, at least he continues to diligently post praises of NotebookLM on X. Google Labs boss Josh Woodward emphasized that they “still have so many ideas for. “ NotebookLM next year”. Looking forward to “I will help understand and communicate everything in 2025”.

Not interested in commercialization?

It is unclear why Martin and her colleagues are leaving NotebookLM now. Maybe they were interested in building it, but no longer wanted to participate in the commercialization that Google has now initiated. Due to the fact that NotebookLM ran as a Labs project, in addition to a small, fast-moving team, the employees also had a lot of freedom, reminiscent of that of a start-up. Apparently Martin, Spielman and Hughes now want to implement this “in real life”. It is unclear whether her new company is heading in a similar direction or a completely new AI application facility.

“I would like to thank everyone who supported the development of NotebookLM – especially our early users who shaped the product with their feedback. Working with you was the highlight of my time at Google,” said Martin in her farewell letter. There is “still a lot to do” at NotebookLM. They are confident that “this team and this product” will continue to “delight millions of people” in the future.

NotebookLM implements long-awaited functionality

Actually, things had recently become exciting again with NotebookLM. The “Audio Overviews” podcast function, which has received much praise since the fall and creates realistic-sounding audio programs with two hosts in English from simple or complex documents, has been expanded to include a long-awaited feature. As already announced at Google I/O in May 2024, it will in future be possible to “join” existing conversations and ask the AI ​​moderators questions in the form of a “call-in”, which they will then respond to. However, the function is still beta and is not offered to all users.

Finally, Google has also revised the look of NotebookLM – interestingly with a design that (also) comes from Abgang Spielman. You can now adapt the interface to look like a desktop to improve the workflow. Technically, the team calls the idea a “studio.” It is, says Martin, “the final piece of what we dreamed of almost two years ago.” “It is a powerful interface that takes all the input that is important to users” to create a powerful AI-powered Editor to create.

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