I am not familiar with what actually goes into “neural retrieval”, and it seems to me like semantic search could be implemented in a very straightforward way with no “ai” whatsoever, just by having a database of words that share meanings, and then having less entries in your keyword index. I think the book “Managing Gigabytes” from the 90’s actually mentions this as a possible space saving measure for indexes, and also mentions the possible drawback of finding stuff you weren’t looking for.

You might be able to get away with only collapsing terms in specific cases where there are no other meanings, and thus save space in your index and only help people find things better without the drawback. Can’t think of any words off the top of my head that would work this way but I’m not trying very hard.

As for the term “Vibe Retrieval,” I think I like it. It reminds me of the paper where they discuss how “bullsh•t” is a more appropriate term for what llms produce than “hallucinations,” have you read that one? It’s a good one and I’ll link to it if you’re interested. Maybe “Bullsh•t Retrieval” is more appropriate heh heh