What is the first step in the Oracle AI Vector Search workflow?

The first step in the Oracle AI Vector Search workflow is to generate vector embeddings. This process involves transforming textual or other data types into high-dimensional vectors that capture the essence or semantics of the original data. Vector embeddings are essential because they represent the various characteristics of the data in a numerical format that machine learning models can understand.

Generating vector embeddings sets the stage for the subsequent steps in the workflow, such as storing these embeddings, creating vector indexes, and performing similarity searches. Until the embeddings are created, no effective searching or indexing can take place, as the system would lack a numerical representation of the data to work with. Thus, generating vector embeddings is fundamental to the entire process and ensures that the subsequent operations can leverage these representations effectively for similarity search tasks.