Deep Research rewires the note taking loop

Google gives its notebook a working brain

The update lands with the soft click of a tab opening.

Google is adding a “Deep Research” tool to NotebookLM, letting the assistant build multi step research plans, browse the web, and return a sourced report you can drop straight into your notes. It also adds support for Sheets, Drive URLs, PDFs, and Word files, which means the notebook finally accepts the messy formats people actually keep on their desktops.

This move shows Google wants NotebookLM to be more than a smarter scratch pad, because a tool that can fetch sources, structure a plan, and synthesize a briefing starts to edge into territory once reserved for junior analysts. It also reflects how users are working across split screens and mixed file types, especially since the mobile apps landed earlier this year.

Expect a shift in study habits once people realize they can run a deep query in the background while pulling numbers from a spreadsheet without breaking focus. The workflow gets tighter and the ceiling gets higher.

Someone will try this on a late night deadline and feel the room change a bit.

OpenAI’s bill arrives in plain numbers

The leak hit like a file dropped on a metal desk.

New documents show Microsoft collected $493.8 million from OpenAI in 2024 and $865.8 million in the first three quarters of 2025, a window into how fast the revenue machine is running and how heavy the compute burn has become. The payments stem from a 20 percent revenue share, paired with Microsoft’s own kickbacks from Bing and Azure OpenAI, which complicate the math inside both companies.

One thing stands out, OpenAI’s inference bill may be outpacing its income, with estimates putting 2025 inference spend at $8.65 billion by September. That figure lands differently when you remember most training compute comes from credits, while inference hits the checking account.

If the market leader is straining under cash costs, smaller players will feel that pressure in sharper ways, especially as cloud providers keep raising prices for peak demand. Investors will do their own math once they see how much depends on subsidized compute.

Somewhere in Redmond, someone is staring at a quarterly sheet and wondering how long this equilibrium holds.

AI tools meet the practical traveler

The classroom smell of old carpet meets a lesson on the future.

Boise State’s BroncoLearn just launched “AI Travel Tools for Adults and Seniors,” a course built by lecturer Margaret Sass that aims to make tech feel less like a locked door and more like a working map. It comes with a free Pressbook packed with examples and simple walk-throughs, including how to use translation apps at a bus stop or pull safety alerts before boarding a train.

Seniors rarely get courses built around their real travel friction, and this one shows how a little guidance can shift the moment someone hesitates before tapping an unfamiliar button. It also shows how student talent shapes the work, because instructional designer Kalyn Mitchell has been refining these modules since 2023 and knows where people stumble.

The ripple is simple, courses like this expand who feels able to travel without leaning on family for every small decision. More schools will copy the format once they see the turnout numbers.

Someone will open this course on a quiet morning and feel the first spark of permission.

Prohuman team

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