ChatGPT Proof-of-Concept: "Searching for Meaning Rather Than Keywords and Returning Answers Rather Than Links"


Large language models (LLMs) have transformed the largest web search engines: for over ten years, public expectations of being able to search on meaning rather than just keywords have become increasingly realised. Expectations are now moving further: from a search query generating a list of "ten blue links" to producing an answer to a question, complete with citations.

This article describes a proof-of-concept that applies the latest search technology to library collections by implementing a semantic search across a collection of 45,000 newspaper articles from the National Library of Australia’s Trove repository, and using OpenAI’s ChatGPT4 API to generate answers to questions on that collection that include source article citations. It also describes some techniques used to scale semantic search to a collection of 220 million articles.

https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/17443

| Research Data Curation and Management Works |
| Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works |
| Open Access Works |
| Digital Scholarship |

Avatar photo

Author: Charles W. Bailey, Jr.

Charles W. Bailey, Jr.