Discursive and conversational search

Two things recently changed how I think about the possibilities for web search: (1) a webinar by engineers at search engine Neeva on its plans for using Large Language Models (LLMs); and (2) realizing that I’ve suddenly started using speech-to-text on my phone and desktop. I’m now willing and able to input much longer search queries, rather than just the few well-chosen words that I’ve been trained to put in the search box.

Together, they implied a new way of searching that one could call discursive search:

Input a paragraph into search engine text box (like an extended request of a librarian) and get back “GPT-3 with footnotes,” that is, a short essay with links to references that I can follow up on. 

(If I can think of something, it’s already been done. I assume this work is already well under way. I’d appreciate pointers to research articles or product descriptions.)

To make it concrete, here are some sample queries I’d like to make:

• Give me a lay-level discussion of Philip Glass’s music, for example in terms of chord progression and time signatures. Something like an education YouTube video, e.g. something by YouTubers like 12tone or David Bruce, would be perfect. It could also be a video lecture, or an article in a highbrow newspaper or magazine.

• How should one describe the World Bank, IMF, WTO, OECD and similar institutions as a group? It’s probably something like first-world multilateral economic free-market organizations, but I’m looking for descriptions used in technical papers and/or by reputable websites.

• Show me academic research, ideally peer reviewed publications, comparing economic and healthcare impacts of different covid-19 containment strategies such as lockdown/opening, school closure/opening, un/mask mandates, and so on. I’m primarily interested in comparison between states in the U.S., e.g. California vs. Florida, though international country comparisons are OK, too.

Once that works, I’d like to have conversational search: After getting a footnoted results report, I’d respond by describing how well it meets my needs, where I’d like more detailed information, and/or reframing the search to obviate misunderstandings that were evident in the results I got.