How to read books 'effectively' with AI

AI has many applications in reading books. Photo: Aegis .

In the age of technology, it is difficult to read a whole book when there are so many short articles, videos, or AI to summarize information around. According to a study in the Vietnam Library Journal , the reading rate among 10-13 year olds has decreased by 14% compared to 2 decades ago.

However, according to the above study, 45% of Vietnamese people read books online. Looking at it from another perspective, Dr. Vu Duong Thuy Nga, former Director of the Library Department, said that AI will create many opportunities for readers if they know how to choose appropriately.

NotebookLM has emerged as an optimized tool for research, reading, and can also be used for reading books. In addition to creating an interactive, personalized reading experience, this AI can summarize relevant content, helping to inspire and increase the efficiency of readers.

Why use NotebookLM to read documents?

Developed by Google and using the big language training method from Gemini, NotebookLM is able to process commands and give answers in Vietnamese in a coherent and natural way. Not only that, if you read foreign books, the tool can translate accurately and easily.

Basically, NotebookLM will point out the answer, allowing you to take notes and highlight directly, instead of flipping through the pages of a book like before. If you need to read multiple documents on the same topic, the tool can connect ideas together for a comprehensive perspective.

NotebookLM, a dedicated tool for research and document recording. Photo: Google.

One important thing about AI tools is that they can be “illusory” in their reasoning, so every chatbot has a warning message that they can give wrong information. NotebookLM is no exception, but you can check the source of each answer immediately to ensure accuracy. If you need to know why the AI ​​returned a particular piece of information, you can ask it a question that will lead you to the relevant place in the document.

You can also organize reading sessions together, but without having to be in the same place. With NotebookLM, you can share documents with each other on Google Workspace, discuss and edit directly.

Additionally, for people with dyslexia, visual impairment, or diverse learning styles (visual, audio, kinesthetic, etc.), this AI will enable you to personalize your reading experience to suit each individual.

More than reading books

Thanks to the use of Google's AI model, NotebookLM has a context window of up to 1 million tokens, compared to conventional AIs that only have 4,000-32,000 tokens. That means the model can process data equivalent to 700 pages, unlimited from PDF, txt, markdown, audio files, sources from Google Docs, Slides, to website links, Youtube videos.

NotebookLM has a clean and easy-to-use interface. Users can upload existing sources from their computer, or use the search engine to find hundreds of reputable sources on the Internet using the "Explore" button.

In the middle of the screen is a chat box for interacting back and forth, asking questions continuously to the chatbot. The range of answers can be limited to the sources selected on the left.

NotebookLM interface.

On the right side of the screen are the tool's main features. You can either manually or have NotebookLM automatically organize your notes by topic, making it easy to review. Additionally, if you're studying, you can summarize and create quizzes based on information from the document.

If the document is historical in nature, with many different events, you can select Timeline to request extraction of important milestones, then present them in a clear and easy-to-follow timeline.

For audio learners, NotebookLM’s Audio Overview feature offers a fresh approach. Instead of just reading text, users can listen to a simulated conversation between two AI hosts, as well as discuss, summarize, and connect key ideas from the uploaded document. As of April 29, the feature supports 50 more languages, including Vietnamese.

In addition, Google launched the Mindmap feature on March 19, which helps visualize information from documents and notes. You can also adjust the diagram, helping to save thinking time and increase understanding and memory.

NotebookLM's new Mindmap feature. Photo: Tokumin/X.

With this feature, Mr. Simon Tokumine, Product Director of NotebookLM said that “2025 is the era of personalized apps for you”. However, if you haven’t found it yet, it’s because “it will take a week or more for the feature to be fully available to all users”, Mr. Julian Goldie, Founder of Goldie Agency shared.

Users can also "read" podcasts, record lectures by uploading YouTube links, or recordings to NotebookLM. This is an effective tool for students who need to study and research. With Mindmap, business people or creative people can also use it to analyze competitors or manage their ideas.

The NotebookLM Plus version comes with the purchase of Gemini Advance for VND 489,000 in Vietnam, allowing you to adjust the chatbot to give faster results, better security, and can be shared with friends on Google Workspace.

Source: https://znews.vn/cach-doc-sach-hieu-qua-bang-ai-post1542835.html