Google gives Gemini Notebook the ability to converse with purchased Play Books titles

Google has rolled out "Expert Intelligence", a new Gemini Notebook capability that pulls the full text of books bought through Google Play Books directly into the user's workspace. The feature lets readers ask questions about the material, generate work plans, infographics and AI-produced podcasts, and view the complete book text inside the notebook itself.

In a briefing for journalists, Steven Johnson, content director at Google Labs, demonstrated the system building a cookbook from Michael Pollan's "Food Rules" and applying Kim Scott's "Radical Candor" principles to advise on a difficult employee conversation. Johnson said the goal is to let every user assemble a personal advisory team drawn from any title they own, available anywhere.

The initial launch covers more than one hundred thousand titles from publishers including Penguin Random House, Johns Hopkins, Macmillan and O'Reilly. Fifteen authors — among them Pollan, Scott, Steven Pinker and Jennifer Wallace — collaborated on "recommended notebooks" that include supplementary background material and forewords written by the authors themselves. Supported books carry a "Gemini Notebook" badge under the "Tools" tab in the Play Books store.

Google has built in protections that block access to copyrighted content for users who have not purchased the book. If a notebook containing a purchased title is shared, recipients who do not own the book see the source listed but cannot open the text or receive answers derived from it; clicking the source redirects them to purchase the title in Play Books. Johnson noted the company aims to create a space that opens new revenue streams for authors and publishers.

The company plans to bring the capability to AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, both of which can already pull information from notebooks. Later, the feature is expected to expand to academic papers, magazine articles and newspaper stories, substantially growing the knowledge base available for queries beyond commercial books.