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Google signs six publishers for Expert Intelligence in Play Books and Gemini Notebook

Google launched Expert Intelligence with six publishers, letting readers use purchased Play Books titles as sources in Gemini Notebook. Answers are grounded in the specific book, and more than 100,000 titles are eligible.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., August 27, 2026. Google introduced Expert Intelligence, a cross-product initiative for engaging with trusted sources through its AI products, launching with Google Play Books and Gemini Notebook. Six publishers are participating.1

Terms of the deal

The publishers are Bloomsbury, De Gruyter Brill, Johns Hopkins University Press, Macmillan Publishers, O'Reilly Media and Penguin Random House. More than 100,000 titles are covered, mostly trade nonfiction.1 Users add books they bought from Google Play Books as sources in Gemini Notebook, and answers are grounded in the specific book, not the web or the model's general training data. Users can generate infographics, audio overviews and quizzes from the text.1

If a notebook containing a purchased book is shared, the collaborator must buy their own copy to use it fully.1 The report does not describe a payment to publishers, so the price is listed as undisclosed.

Background

Google plans to add more source types over time, including third-party subscriptions, business research reports and textbooks, and to expand to the standalone Gemini app and AI Mode.1 Bloomsbury had already announced a separate strategic collaboration with Google Cloud in December 2025, covering NotebookLM, Vertex AI and Gemini Enterprise for search insights and sales prediction.2

What it means for data sellers

The deal shows a middle path between refusing AI and licensing for training. The buyer gets grounded access, the seller keeps sales, and the end user pays the publisher through the purchase. Companies with data that customers already buy can ask whether a product feature can reward the primary sale instead of replacing it.

How the deal came together

  1. Google signed six publishers. Bloomsbury, De Gruyter Brill, Johns Hopkins University Press, Macmillan Publishers, O'Reilly Media and Penguin Random House joined at launch.
  2. Readers must own the book. Users add e-books they bought from Google Play Books as sources, and a collaborator on a shared notebook must buy their own copy.
  3. Answers are grounded in the book. Answers come from the specific book, not from the web or the model's general training data.
  4. Authors were invited too. Google partnered with select authors on featured notebooks that add insight beyond the books' text.

Takeaways for companies with data

  • Large trade publishers will license content for AI features that drive sales of their own books.
  • Tying access to a purchase protects the primary market.
  • No separate fee was described, so the value may lie in sales and distribution.

Sources

Every numbered reference above points to an entry here. Figures come from these pages as of the date shown at the top of the article. Where a source reports a number it got from unnamed people, the text says so.

  1. Google Expert Intelligence arrives in Play Books and Gemini Notebook (iTech Post, August 2026)
  2. Bloomsbury partners with Google on AI-powered publishing infrastructure (Publishers Weekly, December 2025)

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About the AI Data Deal Tracker

SellYourAIData tracks publicly reported sales and licenses of data to AI companies, with the price, terms and sources for each. Entries are checked against public reporting and updated as deals change. SellYourAIData was not involved in this deal. To ask what your company's data could sell for, get a free valuation. To report a deal, contact us.