Google said the feature was developed after discussions with authors and publishers about how readers continue returning to books long after the initial purchase. Expert Intelligence is intended to make those titles more interactive without removing the connection to the original source. For example, a manager could add Kim Scott’s Radical Candor to a notebook and ask for help thinking through employee feedback. A user could combine journal entries with The New Menopause to explore how material from the book applies to personal experiences. Another example involves using Michael Pollan’s Food Rules alongside a photo of food at home to help create a meal plan.
Google has worked with publishers including Bloomsbury, De Gruyter Brill, Johns Hopkins University Press, Macmillan Publishers, O’Reilly Media and Penguin Random House for the initial catalog. The company also collaborated with more than 15 authors, including Steven Pinker, Michael Pollan and Jennifer Wallace, to create Featured Notebooks. Those notebooks supplement the books themselves with additional materials and AI-generated artifacts designed around each author’s work.
Ownership is built directly into the system. Users must have purchased an eligible title through Google Play Books before they can use it as an interactive Gemini Notebook source. That restriction also applies when notebooks are shared. If another person does not own the underlying book, the title will remain unavailable to them until they purchase their own copy. Google said this structure is intended to create additional opportunities for book discovery while giving authors and publishers a path to reach readers who want to use their work inside AI-powered workflows.
Users can check whether a title supports Expert Intelligence from its Google Play Books page. Eligible books display Gemini Notebook through the title’s Tools section.
The launch also includes a promotion that gives people in the U.S. access to one book at no charge while supplies last.
Expert Intelligence is beginning with books, but Google plans to extend the system across more of its AI products. The company said support will eventually reach the Gemini app and AI Mode in Search. Google also plans to expand the types of material users can bring into the system. Future sources are expected to include third-party subscriptions, business research reports and textbooks.
The broader approach gives Gemini Notebook a way to work with paid, professionally produced material while preserving access controls around ownership. Rather than treating a purchased book as a static file, Expert Intelligence turns it into a source users can query, combine with other information and reuse across different AI-generated formats.
This analysis is based on reporting from Google.
Image courtesy of Google.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
