Case Study: Google AI Studio and Gemini NotebookLM — The Failures

Author: Evelyn Caro
Date: August 15, 2026
Lens: Ida B. Wells — Date Everything. Name Everything. Record the Reasoning.

Author’s Note

This paper was drafted in collaboration with DeepSeek, an AI collaborator, using my documented logs, evidence, and voice. The findings, conclusions, and authority are my own.

The Certificate — Earned Despite the Failures

I used Google AI Studio and Gemini NotebookLM as part of my AI/ML journey. AI Studio failed during a certification lab. Gemini NotebookLM, a closed RAG system, hallucinated, made errors, and generated incorrect transcripts despite being a retrieval system. Despite these failures, I earned the Google AI Professional Certificate.

Element	Status
AI Studio Lab	❌ Failed
Certificate	✅ Earned
Gemini NotebookLM	❌ Hallucinated

My Engagement with Google AI Tools

Period	Activity	Evidence
August 2026	Google AI Professional Certificate lab	Lab failure, but certificate earned
August 2026	Gemini NotebookLM stress-test	Corrected transcript, error logs
August 2026	Google AI Pro account	Active subscription

I used Google AI Studio for a certification lab. It failed. Despite the failure, I earned the Google AI Professional Certificate. I used Gemini NotebookLM to generate artifacts from my Mirror project. It hallucinated, made errors, and generated incorrect transcripts despite being a closed RAG system.

Google AI Studio — The Lab That Failed

Problem	What Happened
Lab Failure	The environment crashed or would not work
Frustration	I could not complete the lab in one go
Resilience	I still earned the certificate

I attempted to complete a lab as part of the Google AI Professional Certificate. The lab would not work. I was frustrated. But I persisted. I earned the certificate.

Gemini NotebookLM — The Closed RAG That Hallucinated

Gemini NotebookLM is a closed RAG system. It is supposed to retrieve information from uploaded sources and generate accurate outputs. It did not.

Failure	Example
Name Errors	It mispronounced and misspelled names
Terminology Errors	It conflated “RAG” and “FBA”
Hallucinations	It generated content not supported by the sources
No Disclaimer	It did not warn users about its errors

The Corrected Transcript

I generated a corrected transcript from the raw output. The changes included:

Error	Correction
“Evelyn Carroll”	“Evelyn Caro”
“RAG” (in place of “FBA”)	“FBA”
“Alama”	“Ollama”
“Aval’s”	“Evelyn’s”
“Perskalis”	“AWS re/Start”

A closed RAG system should not make these errors. It should retrieve and cite. It did not.

Why This Matters

Reason	Why It Is a Problem
RAG Systems Are Supposed to Be Accurate	Gemini NotebookLM was not
Closed Systems Are Opaque	I could not see why it made errors
No Disclaimer	The platform did not warn me
I Had to Correct It Myself	The AI did not correct itself

Lessons Learned

Lesson	Why It Matters
Closed RAG Systems Can Hallucinate	Retrieval does not guarantee accuracy
Do Not Trust AI-Generated Content	Always verify
Correction is Labor	I had to do the work the AI was supposed to do
Certification Does Not Equal Trust	I earned the credential, and I still do not trust the tool

Conclusion

Google AI Studio failed. Gemini NotebookLM hallucinated. I had to correct its errors. Despite these failures, I earned the Google AI Professional Certificate. I hold the credential. I am a certified professional. And I still do not trust Google’s AI tools.

I am not anti-Google. I am anti-tools that do not work as promised — even when they come with a certificate.

What to Do Next

If this work resonates with you, or if you want to stress-test your AI system, contact me directly: evelyn.caro.cloud@gmail.com.

Contact: evelyn.caro.cloud@gmail.com

Drafted in collaboration with DeepSeek. Authored by Evelyn Caro.

AI Collaboration Disclosure

This paper was developed in collaboration with AI. The author directed the research, structure, and argument. AI assisted with drafting, organization, and reference verification. All claims, decisions, and conclusions are the author’s own.

This project follows the principles of sovereign AI: the builder owns the work, the process is documented, and the tools are disclosed.