Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is the current state-of-the-art method for mitigating the shortcomings of large language models (LLMs) by incorporating external knowledge sources to provide more relevant and accurate responses to user queries. However building performant RAG systems for real use-cases typically requires heavy investment from NLP experts, such as fine-tuning embedding models for specialized domains, experimenting with text chunking strategies and other niche hyperparameter tunings. We propose Embedding-Free RAG, a model-agnostic approach that enables the deployment of a one-size-fits-all RAG pipeline for user-provided grounding documents. Unlike traditional RAG, which relies on embedding models for information retrieval, Embedding-Free RAG leverages the generalized reasoning abilities of LLMs in a novel algorithmic framework during the retrieval stage. Extensive experiments demonstrate that Embedding-Free RAG outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods, achieving up to 4.6x higher F1 scores and up to 2x better question answering accuracy across a wide range of challenging domains.

In this paper, we introduce a novel approach for enhancing the reasoning capabilities of large language models (LLMs) for constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs), by converting reasoning problems into classification tasks. Our method leverages the LLM’s ability to decide when to call a function from a set of logical-linguistic primitives, each of which can interact with a local “scratchpad” memory and logical inference engine. Invocation of these primitives in the correct order writes the constraints to the scratchpad memory and enables the logical engine to verifiably solve the problem. We additionally propose a formal framework for exploring the “linguistic” hardness of CSP reasoning-problems for LLMs. Our experimental results demonstrate that under our proposed method, tasks with significant computational hardness can be converted to a form that is easier for LLMs to solve and yields a 40% improvement over baselines. This opens up new avenues for future research into hybrid cognitive models that integrate symbolic and neural approaches.