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AI Search Assistant Overview
The AI Search Assistant is an AI-powered chatbot customized with internal knowledge of the Meltwater Boolean language and associated operators. It helps generate brand and industry searches, expand or narrow searches, repair boolean errors, and even translate searches to other languages!
The AI Search Assistant simplifies the search query writing process for users of all levels, writing high-quality searches faster and with less hassle, leading to more accurate results and time for making data-driven decisions.
The AI Search Assistant tackles three general applications: generate, refine, and translate.
Generate
Create brand/industry search: build a brand/industry search based on related keywords and suggestions
Create a search from scratch: generate the first version of a Boolean search string based on the user’s input
Improve
Expand or narrow search: Take an existing search and add more topics to broaden or expand on a search string, or suggest additional operators to narrow results.
Review and repair: identify any syntax errors or areas for improving search quality
Translate
Translate search: translate search terms to another language
Note: The AI Search Assistant is in beta, so there may be changes to the layout and design in the future.
Accessing the AI Search Assistant
The AI Search Assistant is accessed from within Explore. It is available for all Explore users.
On the Meltwater Home Page, you will find a link to Explore in the banner and a card included in the More From Meltwater carousel on the right-hand side of your screen. Both take you to Explore, where you can launch the AI Assistant.
Meltwater Home Page
More From Meltwater Carousel
From Explore, the AI Search Assistant can be accessed in the following places:
Via the banner at the top of the page
From the Advanced Search page
Custom Category pop-up.
Explore Home Page
Advanced Search
You can also select the dropdown in Advanced Search and choose one of the available prompts directly from there.
Advanced Search Dropdown
Note: Meltwater users with a language other than English set as their default will not have immediate access to all prompts.
Custom Category
AI Search Assistant Home Page
The AI Search Assistant home page is broken into the following areas:
Templated prompts - click to run one
Chatbox - type your questions, requests, and more here
Send message - click to send your responses to the search assistant. Alternatively, press enter to send.
Provide feedback - The search assistant can make mistakes. Please let us know if it does via this feedback link.
New chat - click to start a new chat and erase previous chat history
Exit - close the AI Search Assistant
Using the AI Search Assistant
After clicking on any of the above options to launch the AI Search Assistant, you will be taken to a new page with several prompts to choose from:
Create brand search
Create industry search
Expand my current search
Narrow down my current search
Review and repair my current search
Translate my current search
Select a prompt to get started.
Enter a message
Or, upload an image
Click Insert Image
Enter a file with one of the following formats: .jpeg .jpg .gif .png.
Click Save
Click Send Message
From there, you will interact with the assistant via the text box at the bottom of the page like other chatbots, like Chat-GPT.
Once you have generated Boolean that suits your needs, you can add the Boolean directly to your new or existing search by clicking Search. This will automatically replace the original query in Advanced Search. Modified saved queries must be saved again to save changes.
Note: The conversation is maintained even after you close the assistant window (i.e. it will be available if you open the assistant from Explore again). It is only cleared once you log out of Meltwater or by clicking the New Chat button. The assistant will warn you before deleting your existing chat unless you select “do not ask again” in the warning pop-up.
Search Assistant Capabilities
The assistant has many built-in capabilities to help with search creation.
If you start the assistant from Explore with an ad hoc or saved search in the editor, and ask the assistant to fix/edit/etc., your search will automatically copy your search from Explore directly into the assistant.
Below are some of the things that the Search Assistant can do for you:
Generate and Refine Boolean Searches
Have Search Assistant create a new search that includes only certain types of content
Help me create a boolean search for tweets about Tesla and the EV industry.
You can then ask to build upon the existing search and expand the terms:
Expand the query to include other EV manufacturers similar to Tesla, and leave the rest of the query intact.
To obtain better results and minimize the chances of errors, we recommend starting from a simple request and refining the query, one request at a time. It's best to avoid long and complex requests, and instead use simple sentence structures when interacting with the assistant.
For example, the following request asks too many things at once:
This may result in a search like the following which will not produce good results:
Try instead to use a refinement approach like the following:
Then progressively refine the search
e.g., limit it to certain outlet types
and finally, you can move on to ask to filter by specific sources.
Translate Searches
You can also use Search Assistant to translate searches. We recommend the following message template as it has been proven to produce good results.
Understand the intent behind the following Meltwater boolean search: `put your search here`. Translate common words (i.e., not brand nor proper names) into `put the language here` without changing the intent of the query. Never translate boolean operator names and connectors.
For example: the following is a query searching for baking-related terms around Allinson and King Arthur (baking brands). Notice how the assistant will not translate the brand names.
Explain Searches and Operators
The Search Assistant can also explain individual operators and even entire searches:
Explain what the `{operator here}` operator does and provide an example of how to use it.
Analyze the following boolean search `{search here}`. Think step by step and break it down into meaningful parts. Understand the intent behind the search and provide a brief but precise explanation of its intent.
Search Repair
The Search Assistant is capable of checking the syntax of a boolean search against Meltwater's search documentation and proposing fixes when the syntax is incorrect.
The following is an actual search from a client account which is meant to retrieve results mentioning "Pernaud Ricard" in conjunction with "Keep America Beautiful" to monitor the coverage of a partnership between the two brands.
(Keep America Beautiful) AND (Pernaud Ricard)
This query needs to be corrected since, as written, all terms will be individually searched (e.g. Pernaud OR Ricard) which returns 46k incorrect results instead of a few hundred correct ones.
Let's put it to the assistant with the following prompt:
Analyze the following boolean search: `{put the search here}` and check its syntax against Meltwater's Boolean Search syntax, operators, and accepted values using the retrieved documents. Think step by step to understand the intent behind the search and repair its syntax if necessary.
Language Support
The assistant can handle conversations in more than 90 languages. To use the assistant in a non-English language, simply start the conversation in the language of your choice.
Although the assistant is technically able to switch between languages, it is best to maintain the same language during the conversation to produce better results.
FAQs
Are the searches created with the assistant private?
Are the searches created with the assistant private?
Yes, your searches are private. We have agreements in place with both OpenAI and Azure (the underlying infrastructure) that all data sent to OpenAI or Azure will be encrypted at all times and will not be used for training OpenAI or Microsoft models. Meltwater, however, retains the ability to capture and use the searches for auditing and compliance purposes as well as to improve the experience for all our customers.
What knowledge has been provided to the Search Assistant?
What knowledge has been provided to the Search Assistant?
The Search Assistant has the entire knowledge of GPT-4 but we have also provided it with knowledge of Meltwater's internal documentation for our boolean language syntax, associated operators, and other Meltwater technology to assist in the process of creating, explaining, and refining boolean searches. More precisely, the assistant knows:
what operators are available and how to use them
what (editorial and social) sources are available for search
common templates of searches for specific industries
how to expand and refine a Boolean search
how to check the syntax of a boolean search
how to translate search terms from one language to another without changing the intent of the query
Where does the Search Assistant code run?
Where does the Search Assistant code run?
The search assistant code runs in Microsoft Azure in an isolated and encrypted environment.
Why does the Assistant say that it can only help with Boolean searches?
Why does the Assistant say that it can only help with Boolean searches?
Despite being powered by GPT-4, the assistant has been instructed to only help with tasks concerning boolean searches and Meltwater's technology.
Why would I use the Search Assistant instead of Chat-GPT?
Why would I use the Search Assistant instead of Chat-GPT?
The Search Assistant knows the details of Meltwater's boolean language, which are not available to Chat-GPT. Chat-GPT's knowledge quickly becomes out of date while the assistant will be kept up to date as new operators are added and others are removed. The Search Assistant has access to internal knowledge about search templates and special operators that are unavailable to Chat-GPT. In short, the Search Assistant should produce better, more valid boolean searches than the generic version of ChatGPT.
Another consideration is that when you use Chat-GPT on the web you are sharing your searches and your data with OpenAI which can (and will) then be used to train OpenAI models.
Known Limitations
There are some limitations you should be aware of when using the Search Assistant.
Hallucinations: Similar to Chat-GPT, our assistant may at times provide incorrect answers (the technical term is "hallucinate"). It may create syntactically incorrect answers (e.g., place parentheses in the wrong places or "invent" operators). Always check the generated searches against the Boolean Bible and the Help Center resources if your query does not work. You can also ask the Search Assistant to correct itself using the syntax repair prompt provided above.
Bouncing a request: The Search Assistant may wrongly reject a request if it believes it is not about boolean searches or Meltwater's technology. We will improve this behavior over time, but in the meantime try to rephrase your request to make it very clear it is related to boolean search creation.
Access to Knowledge Graph and Source Metadata: At the moment, the assistant does not know how to access Meltwater's Knowledge Graph, the source database, or the journalist database. These capabilities are planned but not yet implemented.
Response time: Due to the amount of knowledge it needs to access, processing your requests may take some time, please be patient while we improve its speed.
**Please report any bugs, incorrect answers, and hallucinations via the Feedback button available under the chat box so that we can improve the assistant.
💡 Tip
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