Less Is More: Why Retrieving Fewer Documents Can Improve AI Answers

Recent research challenges the assumption that more documents improve AI-powered question-answering systems. A study found that providing fewer, highly relevant documents often leads to more accurate answers than using a larger set of mixed-quality sources. This "less is more" approach improved performance by up to 10% in some cases, while also reducing computational overhead. The findings suggest that future AI systems should focus on smart filtering and ranking of information sources rather than simply retrieving more data.