What if you could have conversations with your favorite books without losing sight of what the author actually says? Google is introducing Expert Intelligence, an initiative that connects trustworthy content—such as books, publications, and specialized sources—with its artificial intelligence products.
The first integration is coming to Gemini Notebook, where users will be able to add certain e-books purchased through Google Play Books and ask questions about them. Answers will be based directly on the book’s content, with citations that make it easier to verify where each idea comes from.
What you can do with your books in Gemini Notebook
The proposal aims to make a digital book more interactive. In addition to looking up chapters or concepts, Gemini Notebook will be able to help you create infographics, audio summaries, quizzes, and other materials based on the book.
The tool also lets you combine the book’s knowledge with your own documents and information. For example, you could:
- Consult Radical Candor, by Kim Scott, to prepare for a difficult conversation with your team.
- Upload personal notes and compare them with The New Menopause, by Mary Claire Haver, to better understand how its recommendations relate to your situation.
- Take photos of the food in your refrigerator and ask for a family meal plan based on the ideas in Food Rules, by Michael Pollan.
The difference is that the AI should not respond solely from its general knowledge. In these cases, it will work with a source you selected, making it easier to get more specific answers and review the original context.
The idea is not to replace reading, but to help you return to it, understand it better, and apply its lessons to concrete situations.
More than 100,000 books and collaboration with authors
Expert Intelligence launches with more than 100,000 books from publishers such as Bloomsbury, De Gruyter Brill, Johns Hopkins University Press, Macmillan Publishers, O’Reilly Media, and Penguin Random House.
Google also collaborated with more than 15 recognized authors, including Steven Pinker, Michael Pollan, and Jennifer Wallace, to create Featured Notebooks. These special notebooks complement their books with additional sources and interactive materials for exploring their ideas in greater depth.
This could be especially useful for students, professionals, and readers who do not simply want to finish a book, but turn it into a working tool. How many times have you highlighted a brilliant idea and then had no idea how to apply it to your daily life? That is where this type of integration could add value.
Access is linked to purchasing the book
Google says the access controls were designed together with authors and publishers. To interact with a book in Gemini Notebook, you must first have purchased it through Google Play Books.
If you share a notebook, collaborators will have to purchase their own copy to access the book’s content. Otherwise, the work will remain locked inside that shared notebook.
The company also says that Expert Intelligence could help people discover new content and connect authors with more interested readers. For now, you can check availability through Google Play Books: if a title is compatible, Gemini Notebook will appear when you select the “Tools” label on its details page.
Google is also offering a free book to users in the United States, while supplies last. The feature is beginning with books inside Gemini Notebook, but the company plans to bring it to the Gemini app and Google Search’s AI Mode later on.
The next stage includes more specialized sources
In the future, Expert Intelligence will also allow users to work with third-party subscriptions, business research reports, and textbooks. That would expand the tool’s reach from personal reading to academic learning and professional decision-making.
The important point is that Google is trying to build an AI that does not just generate answers, but also respects the value of the sources behind them. For users, that could mean fewer generic answers and more conversations based on materials they actually know, own, and consider trustworthy.
Original source
https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-notebook/expert-intelligence-leading-sources