ColBERT cost-effectiveness debate in retrieval
antoine_chaffin · x · 2026-08-25
Technical discussion notes that while not apples-to-apples, ColBERT is viable for most use cases accepting naive indexes. Clarifies that '32 tokens' refers to post-pooling size, not the document, with degradation-free results down to 5. The main point counters the 'too expensive' claim, arguing proper tooling makes it cheaper.
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