But better answer: "retrieval augmented" has been used in papers since at least 2018 [1], the full "RAG" acronym since at least 2020 [2], and it was recently repopularized when the GPT3+ hype wave realized they were doing the same thing.
[1] https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.03430 [2] https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.11401
But all it really means is that you put some extra information in your prompt (from somewhere) that didn't come from the user. It's basically the first thing that anyone thinks of once they get the API call working.
People don't use it to only mean vector search, despite often assuming that is what it means.
What I have been leaning towards recently is not using vectors at all, or only using it when I have an extremely close vector match. Instead I give the API one or more functions to look up information that is like an index for documentation or retrieving some info from a database. But it's specific to the application.
I think usually the non-vector stuff is more effective.
Yes, and if you are getting (retrieving) some extra information to add to (augment) your prompt for further responses (generation) then it's not very ambiguous.
I don't think that's correct, but if you look in this discussion, that's the reality of usage. So that makes it ambiguous in practice.