Gemini Has Improved, A Lot
and NotebookLM ups its sharing game
This is an even quicker quick take type post than my usual quick take style. I blame the quicker quickness on either 1) training is hard or 2) I am a weak, easily tired human being. The last three days of my work week were spent in all day, in-person training. The training was interesting, I learned a lot, the instructor was great, and I got to meet some super cool people from cybersecurity teams in different divisions of the organization I work for. I just got drained after being in a classroom type setting for the three days.
Anyway, on to the quick hit topics, starting with Gemini. I’ve bashed Gemini a few times, for goofy or just plain weak responses, especially given that it is considered a top tier GenAI app, and a product from Google, a leading player in AI and GenAI.
Over the last few months, Gemini seems to be getting better all the time. I’ve seen that reflected in where its models land in benchmarks (especially Gemini 2.5 Pro) and see it even more so in my own experience using it on a daily basis. Not long before that I thought of Gemini as at best the bronze medalist if comparing it to ChatGPT and Claude. I would throw it in to a head-to-head contest with the first two with clear expectations that it would offer the third place / last place response.
Those expectations are gone now. Gemini 2.5 Pro is consistently delivering high quality responses on a broad variety of different prompts and on deep research efforts where it really excels. It’s now neck and neck with Claude for being my 1A GenAI app alongside ChatGPT.
NotebookLM is another Google tool in this space. It came out of the gate strong and has added new and impressive features at a pretty steady pace. Earlier this month, the sharing options in NotebookLM have expanded. Now you can share your NotebookLM notebooks publicly. Here’s a slice from Google’s announcement on this:
Many people who use NotebookLM already share their notebooks with classmates, coworkers, students and friends. Today, we're making sharing and curation easier — with public links.
Now, you can share a notebook publicly with anyone using NotebookLM with a single link, whether it’s an overview of your nonprofit’s projects, product manuals for your business or study guides for your class.
Creating a public notebook is simple. Select the “Share” button in the top-right corner of your notebook and set the access to “Anyone with a link.”
Viewers won’t be able to edit source content, but can still interact with a public notebook by asking questions or exploring generated content, such as audio overviews, FAQs or briefing documents.
And what some of the Share options look like:
I’m looking forward to trying out this broader sharing.