Making information work for everyone with NotebookLM

​How can we make official information clearer, easier to search, and more useful for the communities it’s meant to serve? In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore how to use NotebookLM, Google’s AI-powered notebook assistant, to organise and interrogate large volumes of public documents - from policy papers to public guidelines. Participants will learn how to upload content, craft effective prompts, and extract insights using NotebookLM’s capabilities for summarisation, synthesis, and contextual search. ​This session isn’t just about technical skills. It’s about rethinking information equity: enabling communities, public servants, and civil society organisations to work with public documents in ways that are accessible, transparent, and grounded in real needs. Simple, searchable formats can turn dense documents into everyday tools for action and understanding. ​This event will be cohosted by Paul Hubbard (CoHead of AI CoLab) and Karthik Sivakumar, who is a budget policy officer in the APS, with a Bachelor’s degree in commerce and an MBA. ​Participants should have a Gmail account or register for a free google account at accounts.google.com before attending this workshop. We recommend bringing your own laptop for hands-on experimentation. ​AI CoLab events are intentionally open and collaborative. We capture photos, audio, and AI-generated transcripts so we can remix key insights for the AI CoLab Alliance community. This is always done in line with the Charter’s values; transparent, ethical innovation and knowledge sharing to accelerate collective learning (see join.aicolab.org). By participating in an AI CoLab event, you agree to your contributions being captured and shared in accordance with this policy.