---
schema: 1
type: term
title: '**sources**'
description: >-
  **Sources** are the documents a user supplies to a grounded, notebook-style
  research assistant (such as NotebookLM) so that its answers are based on the
  user's own chosen material rather than the model's general knowledge.
canonical: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/sources-12f2e18bc6fe'
markdown: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/sources-12f2e18bc6fe.md'
llms: null
parent: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt'
channel: everyinc
updated: '2026-10-23T22:12:35.346Z'
language: null
children: []
---


# \*\*sources\*\*

Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/sources-12f2e18bc6fe

Parent: [Channel index](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt)

## Definition

**Sources** are the documents a user supplies to a grounded, notebook-style research assistant (such as NotebookLM) so that its answers are based on the user's own chosen material rather than the model's general knowledge.

In this channel's material, **sources** are the documents you give a grounded research assistant—most concretely in the NotebookLM discussion—as the foundation for everything the assistant says [^0cc0dd07-dc88-5d83-8cf7-2f6e48821796]. Rather than answering from a general model's broad training, a notebook-style assistant answers *from your sources*, which is what makes its responses grounded in material you chose and can check yourself.Across the material on reading, researching, and exploring a new subject with AI, the shared spine is: **ask AI for structure first, then do the understanding yourself**. Sources are what anchor the second half of that spine—the understanding you do is grounded in documents you have supplied, so the assistant's role is to help you explore and understand *those* materials rather than to speak authoritatively on its own.- See the topic **Learning, Reading, and Research with AI** for how grounded, notebook-style research fits alongside plain chat and hands-on exploratory tools.- Watch the NotebookLM episode for the full discussion of research assistants built around your own sources.