AI
Google's Gemini Notebook adds book intelligence to let you chat with your library
A new feature called Expert Intelligence connects your purchased books to the AI note-taking app, letting you extract ideas and ask questions across titles.
The Verge
Google's Gemini Notebook, an AI-powered note-taking service, just launched a capability that transforms how readers interact with their digital libraries. The freshly unveiled Expert Intelligence feature integrates books you own from Google Play Books directly into Notebook, unlocking new ways to learn from and analyze their content.
What Expert Intelligence Does#
The tool lets you pose questions, extract insights, and build on the knowledge within your books. Google demonstrated the feature creating a recipe compilation drawn from Michael Pollan's Food Rules, and applying management principles from Kim Scott's Radical Candor to workplace scenarios. Beyond Q&A, users can generate study guides, visual summaries, audio content, and structured plans all grounded in source material. The full text of supported books remains accessible within Notebook itself.
Books and Authors Already on Board#
Over 100,000 titles from major publishers—including Penguin Random House, Johns Hopkins University Press, Macmillan, and O'Reilly Media—will initially work with the feature. Google also collaborated with 15 prominent authors, among them Pollan, Scott, Steven Pinker, and Jennifer Wallace, to create curated "Featured Notebooks" that include author-written introductions, curated supplementary materials, and personalized guidance.
In Google Play Books, compatible titles display a "Gemini Notebook" tag under the Tools section.
Access and Privacy Controls#
The company has embedded safeguards so that shared Notebooks respect ownership. If you distribute a Notebook referencing a book you purchased, others who haven't bought that title will see it credited as a source but cannot view its contents or interact with it directly. Those users get a link to purchase the book on Google Play instead—a design choice that aims to preserve revenue streams for authors and publishers.
Future Expansion#
This rollout marks the beginning of a broader push. Google intends to bring Expert Intelligence to AI Mode within Search and the Gemini app (which already integrate Gemini Notebook). The company has signaled plans to extend support beyond books to scholarly papers, magazine articles, and news publications.
