ElevenReader Updated With 'GenFM' AI Podcasts Feature to Compete With Google’s NotebookLM

ElevenLabs on Wednesday introduced a new feature on its ElevenReader app that can generate instant podcast-like audio using artificial intelligence (AI). Dubbed GenFM, the feature allows users to add any text or a YouTube video and convert it into a conversational podcast with two AI 'hosts' voicing insights and interesting details from the source. The feature is currently available for free on the iOS version of the app. The company says that GenFM can generate audio podcasts in 32 languages.

ElevenLabs Brings AI Podcasts Feature to Apps Before NotebookLM

Google's NotebookLM platform, which was launched in June, allows users to generate AI Overviews of any document or blocks of text in a podcast-like style with two AI hosts discussing the content among themselves. However, the platform is only available on the web and is only supported in one language — English.

ElevenLabs' GenFM feature appears to solve both of these limitations with its AI podcasts feature. The feature is being integrated into the ElevenReader app and supports 32 languages including English, Hindi, Portuguese, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and more. Currently, this is only available on the iOS app, and the company has confirmed that the feature will be rolled out to its Android app in the coming weeks.

To use the feature, users can paste text, upload a document, or add a YouTube video's URL to the feature and the platform will automatically convert it into a conversational podcast. The app picks two AI voices from over 12 options, and these AI 'hosts' read aloud the content of the source and interesting insights from it in a human-like interaction.

The company highlighted that the feature was built using ElevenLabs' AI audio models and can generate a podcast in seconds. However, the company did not mention the details about the AI models or the source of its pretraining data. The company did highlight that it does not store user data once the AI podcast is generated.

Notably, the ElevenReader app is an AI-powered text-to-speech platform that works with a wide range of formats including PDF, ePUB, text, URLs, and even text in images. The app is free to use, and users can also publish their audio for the community to listen to. However, the audio is very robot-like.