An embedding is a numerical representation of text in a multidimensional vector. Embeddings allow AIs to measure semantic similarity between texts and are fundamental to RAG search.

What is an Embedding?

An embedding transforms text into a series of numbers (a vector) that captures its meaning. Similar texts have similar embeddings.

How Embeddings Work

  1. Text is processed by an embedding model
  2. Model outputs a vector (e.g., 1536 dimensions)
  3. Vectors are compared by cosine similarity
  4. Similar content has vectors pointing in similar directions

Role in AEO

Embeddings are used in:

  • RAG search: Finding relevant content
  • Semantic similarity: Grouping related topics
  • Content recommendation: Suggesting related content
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