The HackerNoon Newsletter: The Reality of Digital Nomads: Chasing Adventure, Finding What? (11/2/2024)

I recently explored two powerful AI tools — NotebookLM and Perplexity Spaces — and want to share my comprehensive review of these research assistants.

\ NotebookLM and Perplexity Spaces are two cutting-edge AI tools designed to revolutionize research and content creation. Each offers unique features to enhance productivity and collaboration in different work environments. Let’s dive in and see what each is useful for.

What is Perplexity Spaces?

Perplexity Spaces is a new feature from Perplexity AI. Imagine having a tool that can merge information from both the web and your own files into one organized “space.” This means you can create specific knowledge hubs for your projects, making it easier to search, ask questions, and organize data based on your files.

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With Perplexity Spaces, you can:

• Create distinct knowledge spaces.
• Merge web search with personal files. It supports Excel (XLSX), PowerPoint (PPTX), Word (DOCX), PDF, and CSV. Each file can be up to 25 MB in size.
• Enable collaboration through shared spaces.
• Provide comprehensive answers based on both your data and internet sources.
• Select different AI models to refine searches.

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\ \ This tool is versatile, making it suitable for tasks like:

• Marketing campaign planning
• Business plan development
• Training session organization
• Student coursework management
• Group project collaboration
• Etc

Setting Up Your First Space in Perplexity

Creating a space in Perplexity Spaces is straightforward:

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1. Go to the Perplexity website and find “Spaces” in the left menu.
2. Click “Create” to start a new space.
3. Customize the space with a title, description, and specific prompts.
4. Add files: You can upload documents like PDFs, CSVs, PowerPoints, Word documents, and more (up to 25 MB per file).

\ Once set up, you can start using the AI to ask questions or retrieve information based on your uploaded data. If you ever want to check where the AI sourced its answers, you can click on the “View Sources” option, giving you a transparent view of all references used.

How Much is Perplexity Cost

Perplexity Spaces is available with a Pro subscription, which means that to use it, you need to subscribe to the premium plan, costing 20 USD per month.

How to Use Perplexity Spaces

https://youtu.be/ZFexMDSbb4U?si=3-OAcDTLxamoqdDl&t=114&embedable=true

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NotebookLM: Google’s AI Research Assistant

NotebookLM is Google’s AI-powered research assistant that helps users process and understand documents. Google developed it, transforming how we approach document analysis and research. This AI-powered tool integrates seamlessly with Google Workspace and offers some cool features.

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Key Features of NotebookLM

• Source Integration: Users can upload various types of documents, such as Google Docs, PDFs, Google Slides, and even URLs. NotebookLM then processes these sources to enable interactions with the content.

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• AI-Powered Summaries and Insights: The tool automatically generates summaries of uploaded content, highlights key topics, and suggests questions for further exploration. This helps users better understand complex materials quickly.

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• Question & Answer Functionality: Users can ask specific questions about their uploaded documents, and NotebookLM provides answers based on the content, often with inline citations that link back to the original sources.

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• Creative Idea Generation: Beyond summarization and Q&A, NotebookLM can also assist in brainstorming new ideas based on the user’s content. For example, it can help generate scripts or suggest potential questions investors might ask based on a business pitch.

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• Audio Guides and Podcasts: One of its standout features is the ability to turn text into an audio summary or podcast-style narration, making it easier for users to consume information on the go. This is my favorite feature.

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NotebookLM is Particularly Useful For:

• Students and Educators: It helps in creating study guides, summarizing academic papers, and organizing research materials.

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• Researchers and Knowledge Workers: The tool simplifies the process of synthesizing large amounts of information from multiple sources.

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• Content Creators and Professionals: It assists in generating creative ideas, organizing project materials, or even preparing presentations by summarizing key points from various documents.

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• Business analysis: Analyze documents, reports, and other data without spending hours manually reviewing each document.

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• Etc.

How Much is NotebookLM Cost

Currently, NotebookLM is available for free. This means that everyone can use it without any functional limitations. If you want to try it, visit https://notebooklm.google.com/

How to Use NotebookLM

In this video, you will find a simple guide on using this tool.

https://youtu.be/ZFexMDSbb4U?si=vQ5ssjjFJ52aa37r&t=258&embedable=true

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Which Tool Should You Use?

While there is some overlap in functionality, they aren’t direct replacements for each other. Both Perplexity Spaces and Notebook LM have unique advantages, so choosing the right tool depends on your needs:

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• Use Perplexity Spaces if you need an organized hub for collaborative projects or if you need access to both personal and online data in one place with the ability to select different AI models.

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• Use Notebook LM if you require document summarization, insights, or if you need to convert text to audio for learning or review.

\ NotebookLM excels at document analysis and research, while Perplexity Spaces offers broader functionality with web search integration and collaboration features.

\ Give it a shoot, and let me know about your experience with Perplexity Spaces or NotebookLM in the comments.

\ Cheers! ;)