Manuals! A useful use for Google NotebookLM.

[Kopiert]

A few of you might find this helpful if you haven't already worked it out!

Google NotebookLM allows you to upload PDFs (as well as other sources) and then ask it questions about the documents. These PDFs can include manuals for appliances, electronics, and even cars. Once uploaded, you can ask it questions, so rather than read through tiny print searching for the answer, just type - "what should my tyre pressures be?" "What does ER09654 error code mean?" "How do I change the date on my BG Meter?"

You can also upload the documents that come with your medications and ask questions about them. For Example:

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Interesting stuff @Kopiert

Do the answers refer to the places in the document where the (assumedly AI) concoct the answers from?

 

[Bruce Stephens]

Interesting stuff @Kopiert

Do the answers refer to the places in the document where the (assumedly AI) concoct the answers from?

Yes, it gives references (within the sources you provide). I don't think anyone would claim it's perfect but it's pretty decent. RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) is one of the better categories of applications of LLMs, I think, and NotebookLM seems good to me, though I've only used it a couple of times. (One of the more publicised features is that it can generate an audio overview of the sources in the form of a podcast (between two AI generated voices) which seems unlikely to be valuable if you feed it unrelated manuals but can be helpful for the right application.)

 

[Kopiert]

Interesting stuff @Kopiert

Do the answers refer to the places in the document where the (assumedly AI) concoct the answers from?

As @Bruce Stephens points out, it only refers to the documents you have uploaded, and the numbers you see in the answer refer to the document. They are clickable and take you to the correct point. If you ask a question outside the contents, it will say it can't provide the answer - see below.

I use it for a variety of purposes, particularly for academic papers, but that is a different subject. This tip is specifically about manuals that can be downloaded from manufacturers' websites. My eyesight struggles with the tiny type that comes with in-the-box medicine documents, so now I can just ask the document a question. It makes life a little easier - you can always find the info and get to it easily 🙂

By the way, the audio "podcast' feature is great. For fun, provide it with your LinkedIn web address and get it to "talk" about you.