Gemini Notebook's latest trick makes heavy books way less intimidating

Gemini Notebook,known until recently as NotebookLM, has a new trick up its sleeves — it can read your Google Play Books ebooks for you (via Android Authority ).

This sounds like a weird thing to celebrate, but hear us out. Rather than outsourcing the act of reading to the robots, the aim here is to use Google's AI to create notebooks full of insights and further sources to read more. In short, it's AI being used to help, rather than replace, and it could be a big help for students and readers alike.

Gemini Notebook can help to break down the toughest of books

But only selected ebooks are currently available

Books and AI has been a thorny subject for a long time. Many AI models have been trained on books without the knowledge or permission of their authors, and to say that's ruffled feathers would be an understatement. Add to that the enormous amount of low-quality AI "books" that have made their way onto ebook markets everywhere, and it's clear AI and books aren't a combination that should be taken lightly.

Google is clearly trying to make amends with its latest addition to Gemini Notebook. Using Expert Intelligence, users will be able to import certain ebooks directly from their Play Books shelves into notebooks, letting AI decode them and deliver new insights.

The key word there is "certain". At the moment, only selected books are available, but that still numbers an impressive 100,000 titles. A distinctive AI "sparkle" will mark which ebooks are supported — though this icon doesn't seem to be present yet, as I couldn't find one on any of the pages of supposedly supported ebooks.

I haven't been able to import any of myPlay Books ebookstoGemini Notebook, but if you're curious, Google has included a bunch of compatible ebooks in Gemini Notebook already. Just head to the Discover tab to see what Google has on offer.

While it doesn't allow you to read the books themselves, it does allow you to ask Notebook questions about the concepts in each book, and drill down into what's discussed in them.

I can see this being a valuable resource if you've read the books in question, but as someone who hasn't read any of the books Notebook currently has on offer, it leaves me cold. It feels a little bit like reading a Wikipedia article instead of the book itself, which deadens the impact of whatever concepts are being discussed.

Still, as a concept, an adaptable version of Cliff Notes that can be dynamically questioned clearly has some value, and it's worth checking out the idea if you have access to Gemini Notebook.