AI Notebooks, Second Brains & The Future of Knowledge Work

In one of the most revealing episodes yet, AI First with Adam and Andy welcomes acclaimed author and tech visionary Steven Johnson, co-founder and Editorial Director of Notebook LM at Google. What began as Steven’s lifelong fascination with digital note-taking tools became a serendipitous partnership with Google Labs, and ultimately, the creation of Notebook LM, one of the most innovative AI-native applications on the market today.

Steven recounts his journey from writing Wonderland and The Infernal Machine to building curriculum software in college, to being cold-emailed by Google after a bold (and controversial) 10,000-word New York Times Magazine essay on GPT-3. That invitation sparked a creative sprint with Google Labs that resulted in a first-of-its-kind source-grounded AI notebook, a tool now used by millions.

You’ll hear:

• Why executives need a “second brain” powered by AI
• The power of context engineering in working with LLMs
• How Audio Overviews became the viral hit that put Notebook LM on the map
• Real-world enterprise use cases, like surfacing insights from 100 pages of raw research in seconds
• Why Notebook LM may be the future of publishing, not just productivity

This episode is more than a product deep dive, it’s a masterclass in AI-first thinking, product intuition, and digital transformation from the ground up.

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