If you have forty minutes, here are 3 “radio shows” generated completely by AI (Google’s NotebookLM), including the voices. It’s astonishingly good. The voices are uncannily realistic, way better than any other voicing tool I have tried yet. If you’re in a hurry, skip to the last one.
The AI generating the audio gets just enough facts wrong so as to be completely realistic, just like a human journalist. All these are unedited. I’ve taken bad errors out of other NotebookLM Audio Overviews in the past, but I left these ones, they’re good enough. Despite that, the depth of the reflection by the AI is astonishing.
Here are our mascots Unic and Tom. Pretend it’s them.
It’s also not a great idea to mention fascism in the opening minute but that’s journalists for you. Here’s the first cut, with zero prompting.
And then I generated this next version with a couple of tweaks in a prompt (the first version is totally unprompted), asking it to keep under 10 minutes, which it didn’t, and telling it how to pronounce gemba properly, which it never mentions this time. It is shorter at 12 minutes. It is interesting because IT INVENTS ITS OWN CONCEPTS.
Nowhere do we at Teal Unicorn talk about “What about my island?” The AI invented that slogan. And we don’t really talk about Better 2025 Project being for individuals to inspire them to personal action. It invented that entire last third of the radio show. I’m not sure how I feel about that message. It’s a brilliant call to action for people, but we don’t really think that way. In fact we are a bit cynical about individual or local action. They’re great for doing the groundwork, but they can’t hold against the system. We think collective action by an organisation is the only way to do anything sustainable (in the non-environmental sense of the word), and collective action is only possible with the apex exec. In this version of the show, the AI really missed that point. The first half though was incredible.
So then I generated a third version… It took several generations to get one I liked. It’s still not perfect but they got most of it right and hit most of the important points. The only thing they really missed its the importance of influencing your apex exec in every way you can if the “lights aren’t yet on”. I’m saying “they” like they’re real journalists. Unsettling.
There was no prompt for the first version, then I didn’t keep the second one, and this was the prompt I ended up with. You have to keep it focused else it will sometimes go off on a tangent and miss the key points you want to bring out. And you need to clarify things it misunderstands. The prompts are limited to 500 characters which is a pain.
I was transcribing some of them back into text to get the words. This prompt works of course “create the script for a NotebookLM Deep Dive Audio Overview”, but, interestingly, generating a text version of the Deep Dive is not the same, and nowhere near as good.
Prompt
Focus on “Better 2025 flipbook.pdf”
Keep the audio duration short, less than 10 minutes.
Better 2025 accepts the OneBack, which creates headwinds for progressive workplace ideas. We must all think local and create “islands of light”.
Not for individuals. Advance collectively, and the apex executive is key.
TU will provide pro bono advice to apex execs “with their lights on”, within reason. Not looking for work.
Do not talk about Gemba.
VUCA is pronounced “voo-ka”.
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