Approximate nearest neighbor

Also written: approximate nearest-neighbor, ANN, approximate nearest neighbors

Finding vectors that are very probably the closest, much faster than checking every one. Vector databases use it to search millions of items.

Other terms from the same lesson

• HNSW: A popular index for approximate nearest-neighbor search: a layered graph you hop through, from coarse links to fine ones, toward the closest vectors.
• vector database: A database built to store embeddings and quickly find the closest ones to a query.