PinRec: Outcome-Conditioned, Multi-Token Generative Retrieval for Industry-Scale Recommendation Systems

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Agarwal, Prabhat, Badrinath, Anirudhan, Bhasin, Laksh, Yang, Jaewon, Botta, Edoardo, Xu, Jiajing, Rosenberg, Charles
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Agarwal, Prabhat
Badrinath, Anirudhan
Bhasin, Laksh
Yang, Jaewon
Botta, Edoardo
Xu, Jiajing
Rosenberg, Charles
author_facet Agarwal, Prabhat
Badrinath, Anirudhan
Bhasin, Laksh
Yang, Jaewon
Botta, Edoardo
Xu, Jiajing
Rosenberg, Charles
contents Generative retrieval methods utilize generative sequential modeling techniques, such as transformers, to generate candidate items for recommender systems. These methods have demonstrated promising results in academic benchmarks, surpassing traditional retrieval models like two-tower architectures. However, current generative retrieval methods lack the scalability required for industrial recommender systems, and they are insufficiently flexible to satisfy the multiple metric requirements of modern systems. This paper introduces PinRec, a novel generative retrieval model developed for applications at Pinterest. PinRec utilizes outcome-conditioned generation, enabling modelers to specify how to balance various outcome metrics, such as the number of saves and clicks, to effectively align with business goals and user exploration. Additionally, PinRec incorporates multi-token generation to enhance output diversity while optimizing generation. Our experiments demonstrate that PinRec can successfully balance performance, diversity, and efficiency, delivering a significant positive impact to users using generative models. This paper marks a significant milestone in generative retrieval, as it presents, to our knowledge, the first rigorous study on implementing generative retrieval at the scale of Pinterest.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_10507
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle PinRec: Outcome-Conditioned, Multi-Token Generative Retrieval for Industry-Scale Recommendation Systems
Agarwal, Prabhat
Badrinath, Anirudhan
Bhasin, Laksh
Yang, Jaewon
Botta, Edoardo
Xu, Jiajing
Rosenberg, Charles
Information Retrieval
Machine Learning
Generative retrieval methods utilize generative sequential modeling techniques, such as transformers, to generate candidate items for recommender systems. These methods have demonstrated promising results in academic benchmarks, surpassing traditional retrieval models like two-tower architectures. However, current generative retrieval methods lack the scalability required for industrial recommender systems, and they are insufficiently flexible to satisfy the multiple metric requirements of modern systems. This paper introduces PinRec, a novel generative retrieval model developed for applications at Pinterest. PinRec utilizes outcome-conditioned generation, enabling modelers to specify how to balance various outcome metrics, such as the number of saves and clicks, to effectively align with business goals and user exploration. Additionally, PinRec incorporates multi-token generation to enhance output diversity while optimizing generation. Our experiments demonstrate that PinRec can successfully balance performance, diversity, and efficiency, delivering a significant positive impact to users using generative models. This paper marks a significant milestone in generative retrieval, as it presents, to our knowledge, the first rigorous study on implementing generative retrieval at the scale of Pinterest.
title PinRec: Outcome-Conditioned, Multi-Token Generative Retrieval for Industry-Scale Recommendation Systems
topic Information Retrieval
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.10507