Achieving Structured Reasoning with LLMs in Chaotic Contexts with Thread of Thought Prompting and Parallel Knowledge Graph Retrieval | by Anthony Alcaraz | Nov, 2023

Large language models (LLMs) demonstrated impressive few-shot learning capabilities, rapidly adapting to new tasks with just a handful of examples.

However, despite their advances, LLMs still face limitations in complex reasoning involving chaotic contexts overloaded with disjoint facts. To address this challenge, researchers have explored techniques like chain-of-thought prompting that guide models to incrementally analyze information. Yet on their own, these methods struggle to fully capture all critical details across vast contexts.

This article proposes a technique combining Thread-of-Thought (ToT) prompting with a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) framework accessing multiple knowledge graphs in parallel. While ToT acts as the reasoning “backbone” that structures thinking, the RAG system broadens available knowledge to fill gaps. Parallel querying of diverse information sources improves efficiency and coverage compared to sequential retrieval. Together, this framework aims to enhance LLMs’ understanding and problem-solving abilities in chaotic contexts, moving closer to human cognition.

We begin by outlining the need for structured reasoning in chaotic environments where both relevant and irrelevant facts intermix. Next, we introduce the RAG system design and how it expands an LLM’s accessible knowledge. We then explain integrating ToT prompting to methodically guide the LLM through step-wise analysis. Finally, we discuss optimization strategies like parallel retrieval to efficiently query multiple knowledge sources concurrently.

Through both conceptual explanation and Python code samples, this article illuminates a novel technique to orchestrate an LLM’s strengths with complementary external knowledge. Creative integrations such as this highlight promising directions for overcoming inherent model limitations and advancing AI reasoning abilities. The proposed approach aims to provide a generalizable framework amenable to further enhancement as LLMs and knowledge bases evolve.