Google adds Expert Intelligence to Gemini Notebook, letting users import eligible titles they own in Google Play Books to ask questions, generate podcasts, more (Emma Roth/The Verge)

Google has introduced a new "Expert Intelligence" feature to its Gemini Notebook app, enabling users to import eligible books they own from Google Play Books. This allows them to ask questions about the content and generate various materials like plans, infographics, and AI podcasts based on the imported books. During a briefing with The Verge, Google Labs editorial director Steven Johnson demonstrated the tool by creating a recipe book using information from Michael Pollan's "Food Rules."

Gemini Notebook will also display the full text of the book within the app. Over 100,000 books from publishers such as Penguin Random House, Johns Hopkins University Press, Macmillan Publishers, and O'Reilly Media will initially support this feature. Google collaborated with 15 authors, including Pollan, Scott, Pinker, and Wallace, to create "Featured Notebooks" customized with additional source material and intro letters.

These titles will display a "Gemini Notebook" badge in Google Play Books. To ensure user privacy, users who don't own a book in a shared Notebook will see it listed as a source but won't be able to view the full text or related information. Clicking the source directs them to Google Play Books to make a purchase. Google plans to expand this feature to AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, as well as to scholarly articles, magazine articles, and newspapers in the future.