Overview
- Google announced Expert Intelligence on Thursday, August 27, 2026, and made the feature available in Gemini Notebook with a launch catalog of more than 100,000 supported Play Books and a limited U.S. free-book promotion.
- The feature lets users add eligible ebooks they own on Google Play Books into a Gemini Notebook so the AI can answer questions and produce materials—infographics, audio overviews, quizzes, slide decks, and AI podcasts—grounded in the book’s text.
- Access controls require a user to own a title in Play Books before Gemini Notebook will show its full text, and shared notebooks show non-owners only a source link that directs them to buy the book.
- Google says it built Expert Intelligence in contract with major publishers and with more than 15 authors who created curated “Featured Notebooks” to supplement their books and help drive discovery.
- Google plans to extend the feature to the Gemini app and AI Mode in Search and add other source types like textbooks and subscriptions, but wider rollout and title inclusion depend on separate publisher and regional contracts and could affect sales, author pay, and ongoing legal debates over book use in AI.