Vocabulary

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A practical dictionary of 512 AI, machine learning, mathematics, and programming terms from HerbDev’s AI Vocabulary app. Start with a definition, explore an example, then follow the concepts behind it.

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Retriever

RAG / Retrieval · Level 2 of 5

Retriever

The component that selects potentially relevant items from a collection.

Its recall limits what evidence reaches later stages.

Example

A query returns ten candidate document passages.

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Audio transcript

Retriever. The component that selects potentially relevant items from a collection. Its recall limits what evidence reaches later stages. For example: A query returns ten candidate document passages.

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This helps you trace an answer back to the evidence that was actually retrieved.

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