Citation selection
AI systemsDefined term
After retrieval, an answer engine must decide which sources actually appear as citations. Selection favors passages that are quotable, specific, and attributable: documented statistics, definitions, and direct claims survive synthesis better than diffuse prose.
Measured citation behavior differs sharply from classic ranking — a large share of cited pages sit outside the top organic results, and fresh, stat-dense pages are cited disproportionately. For publishers this makes original measurement and precise definitions the durable inputs.
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AI systems5 of 28 terms
- Tool-calling loop⦿ liveThe cycle at the core of every AI agent: the model emits a structured tool call, the runtime executes it, the result re-enters context.AI systems
- Agent orchestration⦿ liveThe control layer above tool-calling loops: routing work across steps or agents, managing state, retries, and stopping rules.AI systems
- Answer engineA system that responds to queries with a synthesized, cited answer rather than a list of links — the AI search layer.AI systems
- Citation selectionHow an answer engine chooses which retrieved sources to cite — the mechanism that decides visibility in AI search.AI systems
- LLM evalsSystematic tests that measure model or agent behavior against defined expectations — the unit tests of AI systems.AI systems