I tried Google's personalized Daily Listen AI podcast, and it was... interesting

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If you've ever wanted a quick, daily podcast specifically tailored to your interests that might change day by day, Google's new AI experiment, Daily Listen, could just be the perfect solution. This new feature pulls from your daily Google Search history and Discover feed to create a personalized, five-minute audio update, hosted by two surprisingly natural-sounding AI voices. 

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The whole idea is to feel like you're catching up with news and updates that matter to you, without needing to sift through articles. Here's a look at how the experience works in practice and what I think after actually trying it.

What is Daily Listen?

Daily Listen is part of Google Labs, Google's playground for testing cool experiments including new AI tools. This latest experiment tracks what you search for and what pops up in your Discover feed and then it assembles a short podcast just for you. Each episode covers a few topics you're likely interested in, with the AI hosts chatting away like seasoned podcasters.

Key features include:

Audio controls: You can play, pause, skip ahead, or rewind if you want to catch something again. There's even a speed option for when you're in a hurry.Transcript: A text transcript appears at the top of the screen, which is super helpful if you're hard of hearing or just prefer reading along.Feedback: You can tap a like or dislike button to let Google know what you think, helping to shape future episodes.Related stories: At the bottom of the podcast are headlines you can scroll through or tap into to read more about the stories features in your Daily Listen.

How to find and enable Daily Listen

What you'll need: Using Daily Listen is pretty simple. You just need the Google app on an iPhone or Android phone.

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My experience with Daily Listen

When I first enabled Daily Listen, the Google app told me to wait until "tomorrow" for my first podcast. Waiting felt a bit anticlimactic, but I was intrigued enough to check back the next day.

First listen and the UI

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The following morning, I opened the Google app, spotted Daily Listen at the top of my feed, and tapped on it. The first episode took a little longer to load than I'd hoped, but subsequent episodes were faster. I waited about 10 minutes for the podcast to start working and opened and closed the app several times in frustration.

Google warns Daily Listen is still in the experimental phase, so occasional glitches might pop up. 

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Despite the initial hiccups, when it finally worked, I really appreciated getting a transcript right at the top of the screen -- it made the experience seem inclusive for someone like me who is hard-of-hearing and likes reading along. Being able to scrub forward or speed up the audio was a nice touch too, especially when I wanted to skip parts or get through the episode more quickly.

I also loved that while listening, I could scroll down to see related headlines and click to read more. It made the experience more interactive and informative.

The AI hosts

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The AI voices sounded like a male and a female having a casual conversation. 

Also: Google's AI podcast tool transforms your text into stunningly lifelike audio - for free

At first, there was a slight "uncanny valley" feeling. It was clear they were not human, but the natural rhythm, pauses, and banter made them feel very lifelike. If I hadn't known they were AI, I might have thought they were real people. 

Random content

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The fun of Daily Listen lies in what it chooses to cover in the episodes. In my first listen, the AI hosts talked about:

Star Wars: Rumors and news about a upcoming Star Wars film, Dawn of the Jedi.WWE: WWE star Solo Sikoa's appearance in RAW's Netflix debut.Dexter: Dexter: Resurrection, a new Dexter spin-off, is bringing back beloved character from the original series.

This selection, to say the least, was interesting. 

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I was puzzled by the Star Wars one until I remembered a late-night search I did the other day. I randomly wondered how the iconic opening crawl was created in the 70s before computer animation and found a YouTube video explaining how it was made. I do watch Star Wars movies, but I don't religiously follow news about the franchise and didn't even know this film was coming.

Similarly, the WWE news popped up because my husband watched RAW on Netflix the other night. Don't judge us: He's a 90s kid, and it was the first time Netflix had the rights to live-stream RAW. While he watched it, I Googled some of the wrestlers in the ring. So, I guess that's why Daily Listen thought I wanted to learn more about Solo Sikoa?

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As for the Dexter update -- that hit the mark, since I've been watching the series Dexter: Original Sin and am really loving this new universe that the show-runners are creating for Dexter over a decade after the original show ended. 

Overall impressions

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Daily Listen is a neat experiment from Google. While it does throw in random topics that don't exactly align with my interests, the human-like quality of the conversation and the handy features (like transcripts and scrubbing) made it fun to try. I am still curious why it chose those topics when I probably Google hundreds of things each week, but hey, maybe it'll get better over time.

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Will I make Daily Listen part of my daily routine? Probably not because the content was so hit-or-miss for me. I still enjoyed seeing what Google Labs is up to and like playing with the latest AI tools. I might not tune in every day, but I'll definitely recommend it to friends and family who are curious about AI's potential. It's a quirky experiment that shows how AI could change the way we get our morning updates, turning our search history into a conversation just for us.