Flutterby™! : Synthetic intimacy and cultural mistranslation 2026-06-09 23:30:57.769675+02

Synthetic intimacy and cultural mistranslation

2026-06-09 23:30:57.769675+02 by Dan Lyke 0 comments

AI-generated podcasts: Synthetic intimacy and cultural mistranslation in audio overviews from Google’s NotebookLM Jill Walker Rettberg

I find that although NotebookLM appears to create a customised podcast just for you, it is in fact applying a very particular template to all the podcasts. NotebookLM translates (and mistranslates) sources into Standard American English both linguistically and culturally. I argue that NotebookLM’s abstracted model podcast genre is a holdover from the 20th century idea of a shared public sphere, in contrast to the multiple public spheres that are nurtured by human podcasts.

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