Steven Johnson Recalls the Birth of Google NotebookLM
stevenbjohnson · x · 2026-07-17
Renowned author Steven Johnson looks back on his early days at Google Labs developing the AI note-taking tool NotebookLM. In the summer of 2022, he and his team built a prototype codenamed Tailwind in a dull office park.
Initially, they sought a name consistent with Google's classic naming style (like Maps, Docs). Given the product's early stage and lack of users, they ultimately adopted the naming convention from the concurrent MusicLM project, officially calling it NotebookLM.
Related event: Writer Recalls the Origins of Google NotebookLM(3 posts)→
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