Google now allows users to import select ebooks they own on Google Play Books directly into Gemini Notebook, turning static reading material into interactive study guides. Under a new banner called "Expert Intelligence," the feature lets readers query their library, generate Audio Overviews, and create infographics based on copyrighted text. This move aims to help users transform unfinished digital shelfware into actionable notes.

Expanding the Knowledge Base

While not every purchased ebook is compatible, Google states the Expert Intelligence library already supports over 100,000 titles. Participating publishing houses include Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House, Bloomsbury, De Gruyter Brill, Johns Hopkins University Press, and O’Reilly Media.

To enhance the research experience, users can merge insights from multiple books into a single notebook to build a customized, cross-referenced knowledge bank. Google has also partnered with 15 bestselling authors—including Steven Pinker, Michael Pollan, and Jennifer Wallace—to offer special notebooks containing sources that complement their books.

Copyright Context and Industry Shift

Long before AI broke the internet in late 2022, the global community of authors locked horns with companies operating frontier language models over the unauthorized use of original texts. This authorized integration arrives shortly after an alliance of authors and publishers filed a class-action lawsuit against Google in July 2026. The lawsuit alleges the company used Play Books titles to train AI models without authorization to satisfy the ever-scaling need for pretraining data.

The Evolution of Gemini Notebook

This integration builds on the platform's steady expansion since it was introduced at Google I/O 2023 as Project Tailwind. With a simple goal to help people learn, the platform has grown rapidly. Today, more than 30 million people and over 600,000 organizations use it to transform how they work, from business owners creating interactive onboarding materials to students converting notes into audio and video summaries.

On July 16, 2026, Google officially rebranded NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook. Beyond ebook imports, the service is evolving its technical capabilities by giving every notebook a secure cloud computer. This allows Gemini Notebook to write and execute code natively, helping users conduct complex data analysis grounded in their sources.

This coding feature is available today for Google AI Ultra users and Workspace business customers with AI Ultra Access and AI Expanded Access. Google is also rolling out the ability for all Pro users to run code directly within their notebooks in the coming weeks.

Because digital notebooks should go wherever users work, notebooks already feature full cross-app syncing between the Gemini app and the standalone Gemini Notebook experience. Soon, Google will bring notebooks directly into AI Mode in Search, expanding the tool's reach across the Google ecosystem. Last year, the platform previously took steps toward educational integration by adding access to copyright-free OpenStax textbooks.