Connecting a model to approved documents can improve source quality, but retrieval does not solve the whole governance problem.
The system still needs to decide
- who may ask which questions;
- which collections and versions are authoritative;
- how access permissions are enforced;
- how conflicting or outdated sources are handled;
- when a source is insufficient;
- when the answer should escalate;
- what citations mean;
- what is logged;
- how quality is evaluated;
- who owns correction and change.
A source citation proves that a document was retrieved. It does not prove that the answer accurately represents the source or that the source was appropriate for the user and decision.
Evaluation should test retrieval coverage, ranking, grounding, citation accuracy, access control, stale content, malicious content and the user’s ability to act on the result.
DDAI view: retrieval is one technical component inside an accountable workflow.