NotebookLM turned me into a fake fan of a TV show I never watched

Summary

Everyone is watching Love Island USA this year, creating FOMO for those not caught up.
NotebookLM, Google’s AI assistant, can summarize shows like Love Island USA to keep you in the loop.
NotebookLM can provide text summaries and even generate Audio Overviews for different learning preferences.

I’ll admit it — I live under a pop culture rock. Whenever I hear someone ask: “have you seen that trend –” or “do you know that one TikTok sound where –” the answer is always an immediate no accompanied by a disheartened sigh. It’s a reality I’m completely alright with, especially since my true interests reside in writing or reading on my Kindle Paperwhite. Off-screen, I love to run and do yoga, but that’s not going to help me this Sunday when I show up to a massive watch party for the season 7 finale of Love Island USA.

Everyone — and I mean everyone — is watching the reality show this year. Last week, I was completely off-grid in a Michigan log cabin when I heard Iain Stirling’s iconic voice coming from my sister’s laptop in the other room. There, my whole family was huddled around the computer watching. So much for a nature retreat.

I tuned in for a few minutes here and there, but the show — and reality TV in general — just didn’t sink its claws into me. However, I love a good social gathering, and the finale is the perfect opportunity for the girls to get together. The only thing is that I don’t love being out of the loop. So, in order to get caught up to speed without binging hours of drama, challenges, and bombshells, I had NotebookLM give me the rundown of what’s happened at the Villa this season on Love Island USA.

A mysterious third voice has randomly appeared inside NotebookLM

A third voice has unexpectedly emerged in NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews.

What is NotebookLM?

Studying MVP

NotebookLM with graphics of notebooks. — Google / Pocket-lint

Google / Pocket-lint

NotebookLM is Google’s AI-powered thinking and research assistant. It’s completely revolutionized studying and other activities — you can upload massive amounts of information (from plain text to full-blown documents and YouTube links) and the software will allow you to ask questions, receive summaries, get explanations, and more. One of its hallmark features is the ability to create podcast-style “Audio Overviews” that help people with different learning styles absorb information.

The AI only pulls from whatever information you give to it — so you won’t be bombarded with random information that you didn’t solicit. You can also engage with it like a regular chatbot and ask for different explanations, other approaches, or even to switch up the style and tone. The kicker is that you need to upload resources to get there.

You could upload one singular study guide from your professor, or, in my case, 14 different YouTube links recapping each week of Love Island USA. I’ll explain more below.

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How I used NotebookLM to get caught up on Love Island USA

Without watching a single 20-something crashout

NotebookLM Love Island USA season 7 recap.

Love Island USA might not have gotten me, but the FOMO around it is nipping at my heels. I simply don’t have enough hours in the day to binge the entire season before the finale, so I found a YouTube channel dedicated to recapping each week’s episodes and started collecting links. I found a few other videos from other creators to add to alleviate some of the bias (hopefully) and gave NotebookLM the following prompt:

As of right now, there are two episodes of Love Island USA left in the season. I have a watch party coming up for the season finale on Sunday that — in order to enjoy my time — I need a heck of a lot of context for. I found a YouTube channel dedicated to recapping episodes of popular reality TV shows, and I have uploaded links to every single video. I need your help outlining the most influential contestants (plus their most memorable and defining moments), who is coupled up with who, who has the most beef with who, and especially an explanation of the juiciest bits of drama — plus, where we are now going into the finale. Think you can help me out and explain it to me in a very Gen-Z entertaining manner?

And boy, were the results fantastic. From the limited knowledge I had through the grapevine, the summary was spot-on for each contestant. There were some spelling errors in names (like calling Cierra “Sierra”) but I have to assume that it was due to phonetic misinterpretations. It’s easy to read past it and get the gist, anyways, so it didn’t rub me the wrong way.

YouTube on iPhone with headphones on yellow background.

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I absolutely loved the tone of the written version, but I have a pretty packed schedule before the season finale. So, I needed something I could listen to while multitasking. Enter the Audio Overview.

On the right-hand side, there is an option to generate an audio version of the information in a podcast-like form with two “hosts.” You can customize it to have the “hosts” focus on various elements, which I did below:

Customizing Audio Overview on NotebookLM.

The resulting “podcast” took a few minutes to load, but it was well worth the wait. It had me laughing out loud for 16 minutes and 14 seconds on my evening walk after work, and completely caught me up on all the petty drama, shocking recouplings, and all the drama going into the season finale.

Thanks, Google — now I never have to be confused during another reality TV watch party ever again. A new bombshell has indeed entered my browser!