Google is expanding Gemini Notebook from an AI note-taking app into a place where purchased books can become active sources. Its new Expert Intelligence feature lets users bring supported Google Play Books titles into Notebook and work with their contents through AI-generated outputs.
What Expert Intelligence Adds
The central change is straightforward: Gemini Notebook can now pull information from books a user has purchased. Once a supported title is brought in from Google Play Books, the user can ask questions about the material and create outputs based on what is inside the book.
According to the source article, the feature can help generate plans, infographics, AI podcasts, and more. Users will also be able to view the full text of the book directly in Notebook, making the book both a readable source and an interactive reference.
That matters because the experience is not limited to searching for a passage. The book becomes part of a working Notebook environment, where its ideas can be used to answer a specific question, shape a project, or produce a new format from the same source material.
How Google Showed It Working
During a briefing with The Verge, Google Labs editorial director Steven Johnson demonstrated the feature with examples built around purchased books. One example used information from Michael Pollan’s Food Rules to generate a recipe book.
Another example used Kim Scott’s management-focused Radical Candor. In that case, Gemini Notebook applied the book’s knowledge to a question about handling a difficult conversation with an employee.
Those examples point to the practical role Google is giving the feature. It is designed for users who want to work with a book’s ideas in context, not only read or summarize them. A cookbook-style output, a workplace scenario, a plan, or an AI podcast all depend on the same basic promise: the purchased book can become a structured source for a task.
Which Books Are Included First
Google says that, at launch, more than 100,000 books will support Expert Intelligence. The source names publishers including Penguin Random House, Johns Hopkins University Press, Macmillan Publishers, O’Reilly Media, and others.
Supported titles will be marked in Google Play Books. Users can look for Gemini Notebook under the Tools badge to identify books that work with the feature.
Google also worked with 15 authors to create Featured Notebooks. The article identifies Michael Pollan, Kim Scott, Steven Pinker, and Jennifer Wallace among the participating authors.
These Featured Notebooks go beyond simply connecting a purchased title. Each author customizes the Notebook with additional source material, intro letters, and more. That gives Google a way to present books as curated knowledge spaces rather than static files.
Access Controls And Publisher Concerns
The feature also includes protections around books users have not purchased. If a Notebook containing a purchased book is shared with someone who does not own that title, that person will see the book listed as a source but will not be able to view the full text or information tied to it.
Clicking the source sends the user to Google Play Books, where the book can be purchased. In other words, sharing a Notebook does not automatically share access to the underlying book.
That design is important for an AI feature built around paid books. It lets a user build with a purchased source while preserving a boundary around the title itself. The Notebook can show that the book is part of the source list, but ownership still controls access to the material.
Johnson described the broader idea as giving users a way to build a collection of valued thinkers and sources that can travel with them. He also said Google wants to create new revenue possibilities for authors and publishers while giving users a space to bring in relevant knowledge and expertise.
Where The Feature Goes Next
Google plans to bring Expert Intelligence beyond Gemini Notebook. The article says the feature will eventually come to AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, both of which can already pull information from Gemini Notebook.
Johnson also said Google intends to expand Expert Intelligence to support scholarly articles, magazine articles, and newspapers. That planned expansion would move the same source-based model beyond books and into other kinds of published material.
For now, the key shift is inside Gemini Notebook. A supported purchased book can become a source users can question, transform, and organize around. For readers who already buy books through Google Play Books, Expert Intelligence turns part of that library into an AI workspace while keeping book access tied to purchase status.