Google Will Now Use AI to Summarize Search Results As a Podcast
For Google, AI-generated podcasts are becoming a pretty big feature. You can now create a two-person AI podcast from a Deep Research report , or get a Daily Listen podcast generated from your Discover feed. Now, Google plans to expand the feature to Google Search, too.
This new option, available as an experimental feature from Google Labs , will help you create a short 5-minute podcast using artificial intelligence based on Google search results.
How to Enable Audio Reviews in Google Search
To access the new feature, head to your Google Labs page at this link and look for the Audio Overviews section. There, you can either enable the feature or join the waitlist, depending on where you are. Unfortunately, while this is a global rollout, it’s not happening all at once, as is the case with many of Google’s new AI features.
How Audio Reviews Work in Google Search
This new search feature is almost entirely taken from Gemini, which in turn got it from NotebookLM . Called Audio Overviews, the original version of this feature allowed you to create 10-minute AI podcast episodes on any topic, though the new version has a few additional limitations.
When enabled in Google Search, you’ll see a small “Create an audio review” prompt as you scroll through compatible search results. Which results are compatible is a bit vague at the moment — that’s one of the limitations. You won’t see it for simple questions like “what coffee shops are nearby?” but it also won’t work for overly complex topics like researching investment trends in Asia (where you might be better off using Deep Research tools).
Instead, audio reviews will kick in for queries that fall somewhere in the middle. Let’s say you want to quickly refresh your memory on a Lord of the Rings character, or know which Japanese knives to start with when updating your kitchen. Just do a relevant Google search, click the “Generate Audio Review” button, and Gemini will search for you. After waiting about 30 to 40 seconds, which is significantly less than Gemini’s 2 to 5 minute wait, you’ll see your audio review. It’ll take about five minutes, tops, so you’ll get less detail than Gemini, but it may be enough to give you a bird’s eye view of what you’re looking for.
The audio player for your AI podcast will remain in place while you browse the results page, and it will also show links to its sources. And if it really got something wrong, you can “Dislike” it. As with any AI tool, it’s important to note that they’re based on large language models that can sometimes hallucinate . So be sure to check the sources the Audio Overviews feature gives you before repeating what it says elsewhere.