Posting in his SubStack Adjacent Possible, Steven Johnson discusses how “language models are opening new avenues for inquiry in historical research and writing“. He suggests they can act as collaborative tools, rather than replacements for the writer’s engagement with primary sources.
Johnson argues that NotebookLM is designed to facilitate rather than replace the reading of original sources. I t does so by making the entire source readable within the app, and by provinding inline citations linked directly to the original material.
He identifies some interesting use cases.
The AI can be a tool for collaborative brainstorming by allowing users to explore different hypotheses and see patterns within personally curated sources.
NotebookLM can be used for targeted information retrieval.
It can help “fill in blank spots” or remind users of forgotten details from their readings.
The tool is valuable for fact-checking against uploaded source material.
For specific information, like in a car manual, it can provide direct answers to questions through a conversational Q&A format.
It can enhance serendipitous discovery by suggesting surprising, less obvious connections amongst the sources.
It can create mind maps from the sources, in effect indexing them on the fly.
Finally he speculates on a future where e-books could come with a NotebookLM-like interface. This would bundle together the main work with all the original sources used by the author, enabling “timelines, mind maps, and explanations of key themes, anything you can think to ask”.
To identify and configure an AI toolkit for Anapoly AI Labs that credibly models the use of general-purpose AI tools in a small consultancy setting.
Author and date
Alec Fearon, 24 June 2025
Participants
Alec Fearon, with Ray Holland and Dennis Silverwood in email consultation ChatGPT-4o
Lab configuration and setup
This setup models a real-world micro-consultancy with three collaborators. It assumes limited budget, modest technical support, and a practical orientation. We aim to reflect the toolkit choices we might recommend to participants in Anapoly AI Labs sessions.
Preamble
If Anapoly AI Labs is to be a credible venture, we believe it must model the behaviour it explores. That means our own internal work should demonstrate how small teams or sole traders might use AI tools in everyday tasks – writing, research, analysis, and communication – not just talk about it. This lab note outlines our proposed working configuration.
Procedure
We identified common functions we ourselves perform (and expect others will want to model), for example:
Writing, summarising, and critiquing text
Researching topics and checking facts
Extracting and organising information from documents
Sharing and collaborating on files
Managing project knowledge
We then selected tools that:
Are available off the shelf
Require no specialist training
Are affordable on a small-business budget
Can be configured and used transparently
Findings
Core Tools Selected
Function
Tool
Licence
Notes
Writing & prompting
ChatGPT Team
£25–30/m/user
Main workspace for drafting, reasoning, editing
Search & fact-checking
Perplexity Pro
$20/m/user
Fast, source-aware, good for validating facts
Document interrogation
NotebookLM
Free (for now)
Project libraries, good with PDFs and notes
Office apps
MS 365 or Google
£5–15/m/user
Matches common small business setups
Visual inputs
ChatGPT Vision
Included with ChatGPT
Used for images, scans, and screenshots
Discussion of findings
This configuration balances affordability, realism, and capability. We expect participants in Anapoly AI Labs to have similar access to these tools, or to be able to get it. By using these tools ourselves in Anapoly’s day-to-day running, we:
Gain first hand experience to share
Create reusable examples from real work
Expose gaps, workarounds, and lessons worth documenting
We considered whether personal licences could be shared during lab sessions. Technically, they can’t: individual ChatGPT and Perplexity licences are for single-user use. While enforcement is unlikely, we’ve chosen to adopt the position that participants should bring their own their own AI tools – free or paid – to lab sessions as part of the learning experience. This avoids ambiguity about licencing and sets the ethical standard we want to maintain.
Conclusions
This toolkit would enable us to model our own small-business operations, treating Anapoly itself as one of the lab setups. That would reinforce our stance: we don’t claim to be AI experts; we’re practitioners asking the questions small businesses wish they had time to ask, and showing what happens when you do.
Recommendations
Configure project workspaces in ChatGPT Team to reflect different lab contexts
Maintain prompt libraries and reasoning trails
Make costs, configurations, and limitations explicit in diary and lab notes
Evaluate whether to add AI-enhanced spreadsheet or knowledge tools (e.g. Notion, Obsidian) in future iterations
Tags
ai tools, toolkit, configuration, modelling, small business, chatgpt, perplexity, notebooklm, office software, credibility
Glossary
ChatGPT Team – OpenAI’s paid workspace version of ChatGPT, allowing collaboration, custom GPTs, and project folders. NotebookLM – A Google tool for working with uploaded documents using AI, currently free. Perplexity Pro – A subscription AI assistant known for showing sources. Vision input – The ability to upload images (photos, scans) and have the AI interpret them.