Bootstrapping Embeddings for Low Resource Languages
On the map: Synthetic data and self-improvement for LLMs → LLM synthetic data generation
Abstract (arXiv)
Embedding models are crucial to modern NLP. However, the creation of the most effective models relies on carefully constructed supervised finetuning data. For high resource languages, such as English, such datasets are readily available. However, for hundreds of other languages, they are simply non-existent. We investigate whether the advent of large language models can help to bridge this gap. We test three different strategies for generating synthetic triplet data used to optimise embedding models. These include in-context learning as well as two novel approaches, leveraging adapter composition and cross lingual finetuning of the LLM generator (XL-LoRA) respectively. We find that while in-context learning still falls short of strong non-synthetic baselines, adapter composition and XL-LoRA yield strong performance gains across a wide array of tasks and languages, offering a clear, scalable pathway to producing performant embedding models for a wide variety of languages.
Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 13 Oct 2026). Placed in LLM synthetic data generation, one of 13 directions in Synthetic data and self-improvement for LLMs. Builds on 35 of its 51 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 2 Mar 2026.
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