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The Synergy of Larger Context Windows and Semantic Search

The Synergy of Larger Context Windows and Semantic Search

How the future is likely to see LLM's larger context windows and semantic search working together to create powerful systems for finding and understanding information in generative AI

generative-aillmamazon-bedrock
Nitin Eusebius
Amazon Employee
Published Aug 3, 2024
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As Large Language Models (LLMs) evolve, they are able to process more information at once and this is called having a larger "context window". This improvement may start discussions about whether these advanced models might replace traditional search (including semantic) methods. However, the future is likely to be more nuanced, with larger context windows and semantic search working together to create powerful systems for finding and understanding information using generative AI.

The Strengths of Each Approach

  1. Semantic Search:
    • Quickly filters through large amounts of information
    • Understands the semantic meaning behind searches
    • Can be tailored for specific topics or industries or domains
    • Doesn't need a lot of computing power to get initial results
    • Forms the Retrieval component in Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems
  2. Larger Context Windows:
    • Can analyze entire documents or even multiple documents at once
    • Understands context and subtleties better
    • Can combine information from different sources
    • Works well for complex tasks that depend on understanding a lot of context

Bringing the Best of Both Worlds Together

By combining these technologies, we may create more powerful and flexible information systems:
  1. Two-Step Process: Use semantic search to quickly find relevant information, then use large context models to analyze it deeply.
  2. Smart Switching: A system that analyzes user queries to dynamically choose between semantic search (for quick, factual queries) and large context processing (for complex, analytical questions), ensuring the most appropriate method is used for each search to optimize speed, accuracy, and depth of results.
  3. Smarter Searches: Use large context models to expand and improve search queries, helping to find more relevant information.

Real-World Examples

  1. Academic Research: Quickly find relevant papers with semantic search, then use large context models to analyze them in depth.
  2. Legal Work: Rapidly search through case law, then thoroughly review and compare contracts.
  3. Customer Support: Quickly match customer questions to FAQs, and use large context models to handle more complex issues.
  4. Content Discovery: Efficiently find content with semantic search, then use large context models to summarize and recommend it.

Cost Considerations and Use Case-Driven Balance

  1. Token-Based Pricing:
    • Large context models often charge by token count, making processing entire documents potentially expensive.
    • Semantic search is generally cheaper for initial filtering of large datasets.
  2. Balanced Approach:
    • Use semantic search for broad queries and initial filtering.
    • Reserve large context models for complex queries or high-value use cases where deep understanding justifies the cost.
  3. Tiered Implementation
    • Implement a tiered system: use semantic search by default, escalate to large context models only when necessary.
    • Base escalation on query complexity, user needs, or business value.
  4. Optimization Strategies:
    • Cache frequent queries to reduce repeated processing.
    • Optimize queries to minimize token usage in large context models.

Looking to the Future

As these technologies continue to develop, we can expect:
  1. More integration between search and analysis tools
  2. Specialized systems for specific fields like medicine or law
  3. User-friendly interfaces that seamlessly combine different search and analysis methods
By using the strengths of both semantic search and larger context windows, future information systems will be much better at understanding, finding, and combining information. This will open up new possibilities for how we interact with and use large amounts of data through Large Language Models.
Happy Building !
 

Any opinions in this post are those of the individual author and may not reflect the opinions of AWS.

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