Merlin AI summarizes online content

AI tools are evolving (and proliferating) and are being used by students, faculty, and staff to assist with tasks ranging from writing content to debugging code. A recent Educause article, 7 Things You Should Know About Generative AI, includes a higher-ed teaching scenario that provides one path to addressing this emerging technology as it relates to student learning. 

While the 12-minute read is highly recommended, for those who are time-challenged, there is Merlin AI for the Chrome browser. With the extension, a reader can activate the Merlin Summarizer to generate a list of key ideas complete with bullet-point details. The tool will also summarize YouTube videos, providing timestamps to allow for quick navigation to specific topic points. Or viewers can toggle to the Transcript panel for a complete text summary of the video.    

Lengthy PDFs can also be uploaded to Merlin for summarization. The Merlin extension has a monthly free-usage limit and is available through the Chrome Web Store.