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Text Embeddings are All Alike (arxiv.org)
5 points by jxmorris12 on May 20, 2025 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: A new trick converts text embeddings from one AI model's vector space into another without matched examples, using a shared middle structure both can map to. It preserves meaning so well that someone holding only vectors can pull sensitive details from stored documents.

Abstract · Harnessing the Universal Geometry of Embeddings

We introduce the first method for translating text embeddings from one vector space to another without any paired data, encoders, or predefined sets of matches. Our unsupervised approach translates any embedding to and from a universal latent representation (i.e., a universal semantic structure conjectured by the Platonic Representation Hypothesis). Our translations achieve high cosine similarity across model pairs with different architectures, parameter counts, and training datasets. The ability to translate unknown embeddings into a different space while preserving their geometry has serious implications for the security of vector databases. An adversary with access only to embedding vectors can extract sensitive information about the underlying documents, sufficient for classification and attribute inference.

Rishi Jha, Collin Zhang, Vitaly Shmatikov, John X. Morris
arXiv:2505.12540 · cs.LG · submitted May 18, 2025 · updated Jan 26, 2026
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Also discussed: Sep 2026 (122 points, 46 comments) · May 2025 (123 points, 40 comments)