Embedding Chunks and Storing in a Vector Database

Welcome back! In the last lesson, you learned how to split documents into smaller, overlapping chunks. This step is important because it helps us find and use the right parts of a document when answering questions or searching for information.

Now, we are ready to take the next step: making these chunks searchable by computers. To do this, we need to turn each chunk of text into a special format called an embedding. Embeddings are a way for computers to understand the meaning of text and compare different pieces of text quickly.

By the end of this lesson, you will know how to:

• Turn text chunks into embeddings using OpenAI's model.
• Store these embeddings in a vector database (LibSQLVector) so you can search and compare them efficiently.

Let's get started!

Before we move on, let's quickly remind ourselves what chunks are. In the previous lesson, you learned how to split a document into smaller pieces called "chunks." For example, if you have a long email, you might break it into several sentences or paragraphs. This makes it easier to find and use the most relevant part of the document later.

Here's a simple example:

Suppose you have this document:

Hello, thank you for reaching out. I am currently out of the office and will reply when I return. For urgent matters, please contact my colleague.

After chunking, you might have:

• Chunk 1: "Hello, thank you for reaching out."
• Chunk 2: "I am currently out of the office and will reply when I return."
• Chunk 3: "For urgent matters, please contact my colleague."

Now, let's see how we can turn these chunks into something a computer can search and compare.

When we want a computer to compare pieces of text by meaning (not just by exact words), we use embeddings. An embedding is a list of numbers (a vector) that represents the meaning of a piece of text. Texts with similar meanings will have embeddings that are close together, even if the words are different.

Real-world analogy:
Think of embeddings like coordinates on a map. If two cities are close together on the map, they are similar in location. If two text chunks have embeddings that are close together, they are similar in meaning.

For example:

• "I am out of the office." and "I am not at work right now." will have embeddings that are close together.
• "I am out of the office." and "The weather is sunny." will have embeddings that are far apart.

Embeddings make it possible to search for similar meanings, not just exact words.