Indexes are models: a B-Tree-Index can be seen as a model to map a key to the position of a record within a sorted array, a Hash-Index as a model to map a key to a position of a record within an unsorted array, and a BitMap-Index as a model to indicate if a data record exists or not. In this exploratory research paper, we start from this premise and posit that all existing index structures can be replaced with other types of models, including deep-learning models, which we term learned indexes. The key idea is that a model can learn the sort order or structure of lookup keys and use this signal to effectively predict the position or existence of records.
The case for learned index structures
References
[Kra17C]
The Case for Learned Index Structures,
[Sha17O]
Outrageously Large Neural Networks: The Sparsely-Gated Mixture-of-Experts Layer,