Google’s approach to learning in the AI era

Since the earliest days of Search, we’ve led the way in helping people discover and understand the world around them. Now, through advancements in AI we're creating more powerful, interactive ways to learn than ever before.

This week, we convened leaders from education and technology at our Learning in the AI Era event. I spoke alongside my Google teammates to share our vision for working with learners, educators, researchers and more to develop engaging, interactive experiences — and help people succeed on their quest for understanding.

Here are some highlights from the event, from sharing about our tools like Learn About and NotebookLM, to our overall approach around learning and technology.

Learn About helps people delve into interesting topics

Learn About is our conversational learning companion designed to help you dive deeper into any topic you're curious about with Google AI. Whether you're a student, a lifelong learner or just someone who loves to explore new ideas, Learn About is your guide to knowledge. It’s deeply informed by learning science principles, using proven techniques to enhance knowledge acquisition, promote long-term retention and foster a genuine love of learning.

I’ve personally been using Learn About to understand feldspars in geology. With this tool I was able to better understand that a large fraction of the plethora of gemstones you see are just one or two simple structures. Once I understood this, a whole lot of other concepts in geology began to make sense. That’s what’s exciting about AI — it can unlock these "aha!" moments.

NotebookLM is another great learning tool that helps you go deeper into your own materials. You upload your own sources and NotebookLM becomes an expert, grounding its responses in your material and giving you powerful ways to transform information. NotebookLM generates summaries and suggests follow-up questions, providing a helpful new way to comprehend difficult text and synthesize connections between multiple documents. Students and other learners can use NotebookLM to take and organize notes, then transform these notes into study guides, essay outlines, and more. It even offers Audio Overviews, which transforms your information into an engaging conversation between two AI “hosts,” which can be helpful for people that learn best through listening.

LearnLM helps accelerate research

LearnLM, which has been recognized for its potential to make a positive impact on the world, is now available as an experimental model for preview access through Google AI Studio. This experimental research model is optimized for pedagogy, meaning it’s designed to foster understanding based on learning science. With this update, our goal is to allow more developers to experiment with and evaluate LearnLM, providing feedback that will help improve our models and the products they power. As we improve our LearnLM experimental model on teaching and learning capabilities, we're bringing these improvements into Gemini models. So, when developers use Gemini for their teaching and learning applications, they can feel comfortable knowing it’s infused with research from LearnLM.

Our partnership with Digital Promise helps the industry with measurement

We’re working with experts across the industry to progress how we infuse learning science into our technology, and how we measure it. But so far, there isn’t consistent guidance across the industry on how to measure pedagogy in AI tools. We’re partnering with Digital Promise, a global nonprofit that works to shape the future of learning, which will develop guidance for evaluating AI-assisted technologies for learning. Digital Promise will bring together experts from across technology, education and more fields, with the goal of accelerating the development and adoption of effective AI-powered learning tools.

Our technology helps the next wave of learning

We combine Google’s AI with proven learning science to give people the opportunity to follow their curiosity throughout life. We help learners build knowledge that transforms their lives — whether it’s academic, career-oriented or for personal growth. By helping people break down complex topics in ways that meet their needs, AI can help make learning more efficient, effective and engaging.

As I mentioned at the event this week, curiosity is another word for our instinct to learn. Whether it’s students, academics or life-long learners, we’re now in an era where advancements in AI can nurture curiosity and provide a more dynamic learning experience. I’m energized by the technology we’re developing here at Google, by the perspectives of our colleagues in the education industry, and by the learners that we learn from every day.