Doug Session

Doug Turnbull

Retrieval Consultant, SoftwareDoug LLC

In 2012, Doug got bit by the search bug and he's still trying to keep up. From full-text search, to Learning to Rank models, to search agents that generate their own code, he knows the endless landscape first hand. Yet Doug wants to deeply understand the what / how / why, and help teams use these technologies practically, distinguishing hype from reality.

He’s led search at Reddit, Shopify, and Wikipedia, authored Relevant Search and AI Powered Search, and advised 100+ organizations over the years - all in pursuit of the same question: how does search actually work?

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Can an agent distill better search into executable code? That’s what autoresearch does: tuning algorithms by letting an agent code improvements, measuring, and repeating. But it’s not a silver bullet. It’s another form of machine learning.

Unlike classic ML, it’s a dance. Like any dance, we guide our partner - nudging agents to push to focus on what’s important. But the partner guides us too! In the cane of an agent with its encyclopedic knowledge.

In this talk I’ll share lessons learned leveraging autoresearch:

How to build an autoresearcher for your search stack
Techniques and tools for steering your autoresearcher towards great results
Where autoresearch might not be the best fit - and you should use a classic ranking model

I’ll share whats worked for me (and not worked). As well as where I see autoresearch headed for the search space.

Vespa.ai Live: Speaker and Session Details

Doug Turnbull

Retrieval Consultant, SoftwareDoug LLC

Autoresearch for Ranking: Honest Lessons

Join us at Vespa.ai Live