NotebookLlama offers open podcast feature from Meta

An AI tool transforming text into audio with limitations.

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Meta has launched NotebookLlama, an ‘open’ version of Google’s NotebookLM generate-a-podcast tool, but using Meta’s Llama AI models. NotebookLlama processes uploaded text files, such as PDFs or blog posts, creating a podcast-style summary with dramatisation and interruptions, followed by conversion to speech through open text-to-speech models. However, early feedback highlights a robotic, less natural sound, with voices sometimes overlapping awkwardly.

Meta’s researchers acknowledge the audio limitations and suggest that quality could improve with better text-to-speech models. They also propose evolving the format to feature two AI agents debating topics rather than a single model handling the outline.

Despite various efforts to replicate NotebookLM’s podcast capabilities, all still struggle with AI ‘hallucinations,’ making the generated content prone to inaccuracies.