Jerry Liu (creator of LlamaIndex) explains why larger LLM context windows will not eliminate the need for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
Insight
Liu: RAG is fundamentally just an algorithmic prompt-stuffing hack
“RAG is basically just a hack, but it turns out it's a very good hack because what is RAG? RAG is you keep the model fixed, and you just figure out a good way to, like, stuff stuff into the prompt of the language model. Everything that we're doing nowadays in t…”
Prediction Open · timeframe Oct 2028
Liu: Developers will eventually fine-tune new factual knowledge into LLMs
“That's one of those things where I think long-term, you definitely can. I think some people say you can't. I disagree. I think you definitely can. Just right now, I haven't gotten into work yet.”
Insight
Liu: Improving vector store lookup algorithms offers low marginal gains
“I don't think the delta on, like, improving the vector store, like, embedding lookup algorithm is that high. I think this stuff has been mostly solved or at least there's just a lot of other stuff you can do to try to improve the overall performance.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Liu: The final state for personalized AI memory will not be RAG
“I think a lot of people have thoughts about that, but, like, for what it's worth, I don't think the final state will be ragged. I think it will be some, like, fancy algorithm or architecture where you, like, bake it into, like, the architecture of the model it…”
Insight
Liu: Avoid pre-GPT-4 models for tasks requiring complex reasoning
“Like, I'm one of the first to say, like, you know, you shouldn't use anything pre-GPT-IV for anything that requires, like, complex reasoning because it's just going to gonna be unreliable. Okay, disregarding stuff like fine-tuning.”
Opinion
Liu: Security and access control are not P0 for enterprise apps
“I think users have asked for it, but I don't think that's like a P zero. Like, I think the P zero is more on, like, can we get this thing working before we expand this to, like, more users within the org.”