Retrieval-first AI

Most AI products inject context at inference time and call it personalization. This thesis argues the primitive is wrong.

Retrieval-first means the system earns the right to reason by finding what is actually relevant first. Not injecting, retrieving.

Part 1 of 5 in the Declared First series, with Declare Your Frame (/journal/declare-your-frame), Pattern Weaver (/journal/pattern-weaver), Àṣà (/atelier/asa), and What I-O Psychology knows about human data that ML doesn't (/journal/io-psychology-and-human-data).

AI that finds before it speaks

Most AI tools guess what you need. This explores what it looks like when a system is required to find relevant context first, before it is allowed to say anything.

• Why "relevant" is a harder problem than it looks
• What this means for tools you already use