• October 18, 2024

Graph RAG: What is it?

Learn about the revolutionary possibilities of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), a technique that augments large language models (LLMs) with external knowledge to provide contextually relevant and correct question response. Examine how RAG may develop into Graph RAG, also known as GraphRAG, which draws context or factual information from knowledge graphs (KG). Products and services from Accurag simplify a variety of Graph RAG patterns, creating new opportunities for information extraction, chatbots, and natural language querying.

Read More: RAG

The subject of natural language interfaces to knowledge graphs has become quite popular. Furthermore, according to Gartner, this is a trend that will stick around and change a lot of the ways that humans engage with computer systems. Natural language querying (NLQ) appears to be the first significant step in this direction; it seems like everyone wants to be able to ask NLQ inquiries on their own data these days.

Because they do not encode domain-specific private knowledge about the organization’s operations that would truly provide value to a conversational interface for information extraction, out-of-the-box large language model (LLM) chatbots used for question answering in companies are rarely useful. This is when customizing an LLM to your exact specifications using the Graph RAG method comes into play.

What is RAG?

RAG is a natural language querying technique that augments current LLMs with outside knowledge, making inquiries more pertinent if they call for certain information. It has a retrieval information component that is used to obtain extra data from an outside source. This is referred to as “grounding context” and is fed into the LLM prompt in order to provide a more accurate response to the intended question.

This method is the most common and least expensive technique to offer more knowledge to LLMs so they can better answer a question. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated to lessen LLMs’ propensity for hallucinations since the generation pays greater attention to the context’s typically trustworthy information. Because of this feature of the method, RAG became the most often used technique for enhancing the output of generative models.

In addition to answering questions, RAG may be used for a wide range of natural language processing tasks, including summarization, recommendations, sentiment analysis, and information extraction from text, to mention a few.

How is RAG performed?

You must choose which portion of the information you have access to transmit to the LLM in order to obtain Graph RAG for question responding. Typically, to do this, a database is queried using the user’s inquiry as a guide. The best databases for this are vector databases, which record the grammatical structures, latent semantic meanings, and connections between objects in a continuous vector space through embeddings. The produced response takes into consideration the user inquiry and the pre-selected extra information included in the enhanced prompt.

Even if the fundamental execution is straightforward, there are a number of issues and factors to be aware of in order to guarantee high-quality outcomes:

For Graph RAG to be effective, data quality and relevancy are critical, therefore issues like how to get the most pertinent material for the LLM and how much content to provide it should be taken into account.

Managing dynamic knowledge is often challenging since fresh data must be continuously added to the vector index. Additional issues related to the system’s scalability and efficiency may arise based on the volume of data.

To ensure that the system is reliable and easy to use, the generated results must be transparent. Prompt engineering approaches might be employed to elicit an explanation from the LLM on the source of the information provided in the response.

The Various Forms of Graph RAG

Graph RAG is a better method than the widely used RAG methodology. A graph database is a component of Graph RAG and serves as the source of the contextual data provided to the LLM. Textual pieces taken from longer documents may not have the context, factual accuracy, or linguistic precision required for the LLM to fully comprehend the bits they are given. Graph RAG may also give structured entity information to the LLM, integrating the entity textual description with its numerous attributes and relationships, as contrast to delivering plain text chunks of documents to the LLM. This allows the LLM to facilitate deeper insights. Every record in the vector database may have a contextually rich representation because to Graph RAG, which improves the understandability of certain vocabulary and helps the LLM better comprehend particular topic fields. The best of both worlds may be achieved by combining Graph RAG with the classic RAG approach: the precision and structure of the graph representation with the abundance of textual material.

Depending on the type of questions, the topic, and the data in the knowledge graph at hand, we may summarize many variations of Graph RAG:

Graph as a Content Store: Take out pertinent passages from papers and ask the LLM to use them in their response. For this variation, integration with a vector database and a KG with pertinent textual material and metadata are required.

Graph as Subject Matter Expert: Gather terms and entities related to the natural language (NL) query, then forward those definitions to the LLM as more “semantic context.” Relationships between the ideas should preferably be included in the description. A KG with a thorough conceptual model, including pertinent ontologies, taxonomies, or other entity descriptions, is needed for this variation. Entity linking or some other method for identifying concepts pertinent to the issue must be used in the implementation.

Graph as Database: Convert a portion of the NL question to a graph query, run the query, and request an output summary from the LLM. For this variation, a graph with pertinent factual data is needed. Entity linkage and some kind of NL-to-Graph-query tool are needed to build such a scheme.