Meta has released an open source project that can be used to automatically convert a PDF file into a podcast. Meta says Notebook Llama can be considered an open-source version of Google's NotebookLM.

Google NotebookLM is an online tool developed by Google Labs for research and note-taking. It uses Google Gemini's AI and will generate summaries and explanations from documents. It can also take documents and create audio overviews that can be used a conversational podcasts.

Notebook Llama uses Meta's Llama Large Language Models (LLMs) and Text-to-Speech (TTS) models for the processing, and as with NotebookLM can be used to generate conversational podcast-style summaries of text and PDF files. The LLMs of Notebook Llama are integrated into an open-source notebook interface, similar to Jupyter or Google Colab.

To use Notebook Llama, you first upload a file containing text, such as a PDF of a news item or blog post. The tool creates a transcript based on the file, then dramatizes it to "enhance its conversational appeal for audio audiences". This stage involves adding interruptions and making it sound more like someone speaking rather than reading text.

The developers say the project offers a structured approach through notebooks, making it suitable for those with little to no prior knowledge of LLMs, prompting, or audio models.

The documentation says the model employs parameter-efficient fine-tuning, and Meta has also made the foundational model and a set of recipes available. The tool supports multi-turn conversations. In use, testers have said the tool lacks some of the realism of NotebookLM because the voices aren't realistic enough, sounding too computer-generated. The developers say the sound quality could be improved with stronger text-to-speech models, which they say is what limits how natural the output sounds.

More Information

Notebook Llama Website

Notebook Llama On GitHub

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