What an embedding is, and how search uses it

What is an embedding, and how does search use it to find text by meaning?

How LLMs work · about 5 minutes

An embedding is a list of numbers that stands for a piece of text. Texts that mean similar things get similar lists. So a search can find the right paragraph by its meaning, even when the paragraph uses different words from your question.

Sketch: Xiaohei pins sentences on a big map and measures how close two pins sit