Google NotebookLM Is Getting a New Discover Sources Feature That Can Search the Web

Google NotebookLM is getting a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that will make it easier for users to add sources for a particular topic. Announced on Wednesday, the new feature is dubbed Discover Sources, and it can scour the Internet to find relevant sources for a given topic. The Mountain View-based tech giant said that this feature uses Gemini to find information on the web. Notably, the new feature arrives just a week after the company introduced the new Mind Maps feature for NotebookLM.

NotebookLM's Discover Sources Is Powered by Gemini

In a blog post, Google detailed the new NotebookLM feature. Discover Sources, which is powered by Gemini, is currently rolling out to all users, and is not limited to its Plus subscription. The tech giant said that the new feature will enable users to learn and understand new topics even if they do not have a document or source for the topic.

To find the Discover Sources option, users will have to open a new notebook in NotebookLM and check the Sources panel. It can be seen next to the “Add Sources” option as a button with a magnifying glass and Gemini sparkle icon. Tapping the button opens a pop-up box with the text “What are you interested in?” and a text box at the bottom.

Users can write a prompt about the topic they're interested in learning about. Once added, Gemini runs a web search to find high-quality sources from around the web. The AI tool shares up to 10 sources, which can be manually added to the notebook.

Google says that once the sources have been imported to the notebook, users can access all the usual NotebookLM features for the information, including creating Briefing Docs, FAQs, and Audio Overviews. These sources will also remain in the notebook, and users can read the original text and use the chatbot to ask questions about them.

New users can also tap on the “I'm Feeling Curious” button, and Gemini will curate sources on a random topic to help the user get started. Notably, Google says Discover Sources acts as a discovery agent.