New feature: Smart Search
Smart Search is a brand-new search engine built right into Logos. Just like the search engines you’re familiar with online, Smart Search doesn’t just search for the words in your query – it uses AI to search for articles that discuss the meaning of those words and then shows the most relevant place in that article in the search snippets. It makes searching your Logos library as easy as you’ve always hoped it would be – and, if you wish, you can even search Logos books that you don’t yet own. Smart Search is the new default in both All Search and Books Search. But don’t worry – if you need the more precise search we’ve always offered, you can switch to that in just two clicks.
Smart Search is available to some users today via our early access to Logos Pro subscription. It will be more widely available later in the year. It's already on desktop and web and will be coming to mobile in v33, in early April.
For more information about Smart Search, visit our support page.
Comments
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Mark Barnes (Logos) said:
it uses AI
Can you explain more about what AI is being used. Apologies for being ignorant. But lots has been said about chatgpt and Bard or now gemini. Is the AI used in Logos one of these or something different? How trustworthy is it? Is it limited to extracting material from our resources and those on Logos' server? Basically, who is behind the AI used in Logos?
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Will smart search be incorporated with the the Bible or is this specific only to Books/All?
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Mark said:
Can you explain more about what AI is being used. Apologies for being ignorant. But lots has been said about chatgpt and Bard or now gemini. Is the AI used in Logos one of these or something different? How trustworthy is it? Is it limited to extracting material from our resources and those on Logos' server? Basically, who is behind the AI used in Logos?
No need to apologise.
Smart Search doesn't use ChatGPT or Gemini.
In Smart Search, we perform a very loose search without AI. That finds 50 articles that roughly match your query. We then use AI to identify a snippet from each article that most closely matches your query. We don't rewrite any text; we only identify the most relevant existing text in the book. Once we have these snippets, we use AI to re-order them to put the most relevant ones at the top.
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Ryan said:
Will smart search be incorporated with the the Bible or is this specific only to Books/All?
At the moment, it's restricted to Books/All. Generally, we've found that Precise Search works better for typical Bible searches. You can, however, choose to search a Bible using Books search if you wish.
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It seems that most of the resources cited in response to my searches are those not in my library of 13,000+ resources. Can I limit answers to those drawn from resources I own?
I found the answer on the support page. Using Smart Search mode within Book Search, it operates in exactly the same way it does within All Search but only returns results from books you own.
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I noticed that, unlike the Precise search, Smart search does not give you location info for the search results, which is important for actual print books in my print library. Yes, I can run a Precise search (on quoted text from the Smart search) and get the location info that way, but that extra work can add up in time. Is it possible to see page/chapter number etc in Smart search, same as we do in Precise search?
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in Smart Search I would prefer that the results are sorted with the resources I don't own at the bottom. Another option would be that I could sort them down to the bottom. I know I could use the book search currently but sometimes I prefer an All Search.
👁️ 👁️
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Antony Brennan said:
in Smart Search I would prefer that the results are sorted with the resources I don't own at the bottom. Another option would be that I could sort them down to the bottom. I know I could use the book search currently but sometimes I prefer an All Search.
I agree, put the books that I do not own at the bottom of the search results screen.
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Pastor Michael Huffman said:Antony Brennan said:
in Smart Search I would prefer that the results are sorted with the resources I don't own at the bottom. Another option would be that I could sort them down to the bottom. I know I could use the book search currently but sometimes I prefer an All Search.
I agree, put the books that I do not own at the bottom of the search results screen.
I've been wondering about this - but not at all sure.
Even with a large library it is possible that the most helpful result is an unowned book - putting this result at the bottom of a long list would probably guarantee it wouldn't be seen.
And, with the option to constrain the search to only books I own - by using a Books Search - that seems to provide what is needed.
Am I missing something?
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Mark Barnes (Logos) said:
Smart Search doesn't use ChatGPT or Gemini.
In Smart Search, we perform a very loose search without AI. That finds 50 articles that roughly match your query. We then use AI to identify a snippet from each article that most closely matches your query. We don't rewrite any text; we only identify the most relevant existing text in the book. Once we have these snippets, we use AI to re-order them to put the most relevant ones at the top.
Mark Barnes,
Will Faithlife explicitly inform buyers/subscribers on its website of what you have described here?
That is, that the AI search is actually an ordinary search, but that it only in the background filters the results through the AI to categorize the most relevant ones?
Customers should be clearly informed of this and I hope that Faithlife will make this clear as long as this is the case and also when it changes. No one should unknowingly buy a bargain.
I'm really disappointed to hear that! Because it means, sorry to say, it seems to me that first a "dumb" search is done, and then a "smart" search filters the first one. The point is that if the base search is not so good, the second one becomes bad.
I'd prefer to do a precise search with the operators I've already mastered well, so that the AI can then filter and return the best ones. Wouldn't that be possible?
____________
"... And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." (Ne 8.10)
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Anderson JF Abreu said:
Will Faithlife explicitly inform buyers/subscribers on its website of what you have described here?
It's specifically a search, not an AI chatbot. What were you expecting to be different?
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Paying by the month to sort a bad search isn't as smart as Logos developing unfinished current tools to get a good search from the beginning. That is the feature I want and would pay for.
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GaoLu said:
Paying by the month to sort a bad search isn't as smart as ...
My expectations were lower than what is implied in the last few posts. What I found in beta testing, was that the All search which I has stopped using in its L10 form, became useful again in the smart search. How much value that will have for a user depends upon what tasks they want Logos to perform.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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Mark Barnes (Logos) said:
It's specifically a search, not an AI chatbot. What were you expecting to be different?
I feel, when reading several answers, that you are starting to get nervous about the questions raised. That's part of the job. It is something new with many implications and consequences for users.
Not to say it's not a chatbot, but it says it will use AI for research. What will most users understand from AI search?
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"... And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." (Ne 8.10)
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Mark Barnes (Logos) said:
It's specifically a search, not an AI chatbot. What were you expecting to be different?
Yes! When I read and tested that Logos now has intelligent search using AI, I understood that Faithlife provides AI with access to the database to perform the search directly from it and return the results to the user.
When I test AI to generate summaries, questions and illustrations for the sermon, this is even more reinforced, even more so in the current scenario created by OpenAI with ChatGPT.
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"... And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." (Ne 8.10)
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Agreed. This isn't very useful if it doesn't prioritize my resources I already own. As it is now, it just feels like a sales tool.
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Jeremy Archer said:
Agreed. This isn't very useful if it doesn't prioritize my resources I already own. As it is now, it just feels like a sales tool.
Hi Jeremy! Set your search to Books instead of All, and it will search just your own personal Logos Library. Also, I've had great success searching specific Collections I've created for subsets of my personal library.
Senior Publisher Relations Specialist
Logos Bible Software0 -
That's great! Thank you!
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GaoLu said:
Paying by the month to sort a bad search isn't as smart as Logos developing unfinished current tools to get a good search from the beginning. That is the feature I want and would pay for.
This is an example of a feature that will be deprecated over time. Forget about their regular search ever improving again. This "old" search will over time be deprecated and the "new" AI search will be the default search and you'll be paying subscription for the rest of your life for conducting a simple search!
Bookmark this post and come back in a few years to point this out to Logos team.
I believe in a Win-Win-Win God.
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1Cor10 31 said:
This "old" search will over time be deprecated and the "new" AI search will be the default search and you'll be paying subscription for the rest of your life for conducting a simple search!
If by "old" search you mean what is now called Precise Search, I don't agree. There are search functions for which the current Smart Search is not useful. Also, there will always be people leery of the Smart Search, (wrongly) lumping it in with generative AI; I don't see Logos alienating these customers by going full AI search even if they got to the point of using Smart Search for all search functions.
1Cor10 31 said:Bookmark this post and come back in a few years to point this out to Logos team.
Please give a specific number for "a few years" - I want to set a reminder 😛
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1Cor10 31 said:GaoLu said:
Paying by the month to sort a bad search isn't as smart as Logos developing unfinished current tools to get a good search from the beginning. That is the feature I want and would pay for.
This is an example of a feature that will be deprecated over time. Forget about their regular search ever improving again. This "old" search will over time be deprecated and the "new" AI search will be the default search and you'll be paying subscription for the rest of your life
That is unrealistic. Smart AI could never replace Precise "old" because the former is:
- not about precise word/phrase queries (BEFORE, AFTER, IN, WITHIN,..)
- not about grammar or morphology
- not about datatype/dataset queries like event:event-name agent:person:person-name in Bibles
Dave
===Windows 11 & Android 13
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Thank you Dave.
Not smart enough about what goes in the background in AI search. Is there a place where we can read about the pros and cons of the current Logos search vs. the new AI search?
Thanks
I believe in a Win-Win-Win God.
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1Cor10 31 said:
Is there a place where we can read about the pros and cons of the current Logos search vs. the new AI search?
I did a concise Introduction in the wiki. The Smart AI Search:-
- is good for researching general (bible-oriented) information
- ALL will search the Logos Catalog whilst Books will only search your Library
- is not a Chatbot
- so avoid words like how, where, what, when, why where possible; and
- don't be verbose e.g. "Hadrians wall" rather than "the wall of Hadrian"; but
- "how many books in the bible" or "what are the books in the bible" can be better than "books in the bible"
- does not need Precise Search syntax like OR, AND, NEAR
- BUT will likely tempt you to buy more books!
Dave
===Windows 11 & Android 13
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Thank you Dave. That was helpful indeed.
I believe in a Win-Win-Win God.
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Brave has a great AI summary feature built into search that actually does a great job with Biblical references too and is free.
Can Logos provide something like this that provides results from a library of resources that are academic yet practical?
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Stuart said:
Can Logos provide something like this that provides results from a library of resources that are academic yet practical?
Logos can provide results from its extensive catalog in an ALL Search, and allow one to Summarize each result:
A locked padlock symbol in the Title line will indicate that the book is not owned. Its absence here shows that the books are owned.
The feature is only available to subscribers.
Dave
===Windows 11 & Android 13
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Suggestion: Custom "Admin" Prompts for AI Agents
Is there a way for each user to have their own customized "admin" prompts for the AI search agent? I'm thinking of an "Agent Admin Prompt" that would guide the AI’s behavior during a specific search session. For example, I’ve been exploring topics related to Abram, Sarai, and Hagar, and I’d find it helpful to have an Admin prompt like: "Prioritize and provide resources, search results, and perspectives that cover theological minority viewpoints, such as feminist, womanist, Asian, and African-American perspectives." For me this could help surface results that I would normally not find.
Also, having the ability to direct the AI in this way could reduce the "black box" feeling when it returns search results. Right now, it seems the AI is trying to handle too many tasks at once—often prioritizing results based on similarity, which is useful, but doesn’t always meet the specific focus I'm looking for. I’d love to see a feature that allows users to have more control over how the AI prioritizes and refines search results. This functionality could also include feature flags like: owned resources only, my top rated commentaries, etc.
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It doesn't exist today and there are no announcements that it will be possible in the near future.James Taylor II said:Is there a way for each user to have their own customized "admin" prompts for the AI search agent?
What you can do is create a collection of books that you know defend these positions or have this perspective and search only in them using the “Books” search instead of “All”.____________
"... And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." (Ne 8.10)
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