By Stephen Nellis
(Reuters) – Oracle on Thursday released an update to its database technology intended to make it more useful with artificial intelligence technology.
The update, which is called Oracle Database 23ai, introduces technology that will make it easier for chatbots and other new AI systems to find data stored in corporate systems. Using what is called “vector search” technology, the new Oracle database can be searched by concepts or ideas expressed in natural human language, instead of simply matching up keywords or phrases.
Juan Loaiza, executive vice president of mission-critical database technologies at Oracle, said the vector search technology can be useful for asking complicated questions with a lot of requirements or contingencies. For example, if a person is searching a database of used cars and wants a sport utility vehicle with a certain mileage and color, and would prefer heated seats but is willing to trade that feature for lower mileage, a traditional database technology might struggle to understand what the user is looking for.
“It can get quite complicated to figure out what’s in a document, figure out what matters,” Loaiza told Reuters in an interview. “It’s been difficult to do in databases because they match one thing, and they’ll filter stuff out, but then you might have nothing.”
Oracle is making the database technology available on its own cloud computing service as well as through its cloud database partners such as Microsoft. Loaiza said Oracle was not ready to disclose when it will available to companies to run in their own private data centers.
Loaiza said the technology will be made available to existing Oracle Database customers at no additional charge.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco, Editing by Franklin Paul)
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