How engines work
Context window
A context window is how much text a model can consider at once, covering the conversation so far plus any retrieved documents. It limits how many sources can inform a single answer.
In more detail
Because the window is finite, engines include only a handful of retrieved passages per answer. Being concise and self-contained improves a passage's chances of being one of them.
Guides that cover this
Related terms
Large language model
A large language model is a system trained on very large amounts of text to predict and generate language. It is the component that writes an answer engine's response, drawing on what it learned in training plus anything retrieved at the moment of asking.
Retrieval-augmented generation
Retrieval-augmented generation is when a model searches for relevant documents and writes its answer from what it finds, rather than from training alone. It is why a page published this week can appear in an answer today.
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