Did you know Google Tests New AI Feature for Personalized Short Podcast Creation Depending on Search History

 

Tech giant Google is at it again and this time around it’s testing an innovative short podcast creation feature.

The latest offering will use AI technology to give users ideas on how to produce short podcasts that are based on everything they search for. Some of the preferred news topics would be Discovery Feed, it shared.

The feature is dubbed Daily Listen and it appears right underneath the search bar option for Google apps on both iPhone and Android devices. For now, testing is open for those in America who signed up for it through Search Labs beta. Still, the company is looking for more enthusiastic and interested people who can grab this opportunity if they would like.

The new Daily Listen option is quite similar in working to the Audio Overview you’d find on NotebookLM. The latter produce short podcasts depending on a little prompt while Daily Listen would take into consideration ideas based on the user’s search history and what posts they follow regularly.

If this feature gets enabled, the podcast would be for five minutes depending on what the user’s favorite topics could be. It would automatically appear through their Discover Feed every day.

The new personalized offering in the form of a podcast will get dated and labeled ‘Made for You’. Clicking on the thumbnail would launch full-screen players with the right kind of audio or transcription for this podcast. Users will get options for playback controls such as one where they can adjust speed for playback. They will provide information for Daily Listen including feedback like a thumbs up or thumbs down.

A spokesperson for the firm adds that it’s another way to get a good summary of things that they would like to know and those that are more customized for them. The last test dubbed AI Overviews was done by the company internally before a public launch in 2024. This was where they were able to highlight some very incorrect summaries for a wide array of questions.

The new Daily Listen feature, while innovative, raises potential privacy concerns due to its reliance on analyzing users’ search histories and activity patterns to generate personalized content. Critics highlight that such features, while offering convenience, may inadvertently expose sensitive data, increasing risks of misuse and normalizing extensive data collection practices. This underscores the importance of balancing personalization with robust data protection measures.