{
  "altLabels": [
    "AI Grounding"
  ],
  "definition": "The practice or goal of anchoring generated or system output in supplied, retrieved, or otherwise authoritative source information.",
  "derivedRelations": [
    {
      "note": "Question answering is a task objective; grounding concerns whether an answer or generated response is supported by source material.",
      "target": "question-answering",
      "type": "notEquivalentTo"
    },
    {
      "note": "Semantic search retrieves by meaning; grounding concerns whether output is supported by source material.",
      "target": "semantic-search",
      "type": "notEquivalentTo"
    },
    {
      "target": "agentic-rag",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "question-answering",
      "type": "related"
    }
  ],
  "distinctions": [
    {
      "reason": "RAG is one architecture pattern that can support grounding; grounding is the broader output-quality goal of tying claims to source material.",
      "statement": "Grounding is not Retrieval-Augmented Generation.",
      "target": "rag",
      "targetLabel": "Retrieval-Augmented Generation",
      "targetUri": "https://id.searchplex.net/rag/"
    },
    {
      "reason": "Retrieval selects source material; grounding concerns whether output is supported by source material.",
      "statement": "Grounding is not Retrieval.",
      "target": "retrieval",
      "targetLabel": "Retrieval",
      "targetUri": "https://id.searchplex.net/retrieval/"
    }
  ],
  "id": "grounding",
  "kind": "GeneralConcept",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/",
  "links": [
    {
      "label": "Google Cloud: RAG and grounding",
      "type": "officialHomepage",
      "url": "https://cloud.google.com/use-cases/retrieval-augmented-generation"
    }
  ],
  "modifiedAt": "2026-09-14T06:43:46Z",
  "prefLabel": "Grounding",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "Searchplex",
    "url": "https://searchplex.net/"
  },
  "relations": [
    {
      "note": "RAG is one architecture pattern that can support grounding; grounding is the broader output-quality goal of tying claims to source material.",
      "target": "rag",
      "type": "notEquivalentTo"
    },
    {
      "note": "Retrieval selects source material; grounding concerns whether output is supported by source material.",
      "target": "retrieval",
      "type": "notEquivalentTo"
    },
    {
      "target": "rag",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "retrieval",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "semantic-search",
      "type": "related"
    }
  ],
  "representations": {
    "html": "https://id.searchplex.net/grounding/",
    "json": "https://id.searchplex.net/grounding.json",
    "jsonld": "https://id.searchplex.net/grounding.jsonld"
  },
  "scheme": "https://id.searchplex.net/scheme/",
  "scopeNote": "In AI and RAG systems, grounding is often discussed as a way to reduce unsupported or fabricated claims. Retrieval can support grounding, but grounding may also use provided context, tools, databases, citations, or other evidence sources.",
  "status": "published",
  "uri": "https://id.searchplex.net/grounding/"
}