What is "query fan-out" in the context of AI platforms?

Query fan-out describes an AI's ability to broaden a search beyond the initial query, exploring related concepts, entities, and contextual information to provide a comprehensive answer. Instead of a narrow, keyword-based search, the AI "fans out" to gather all potentially relevant data from various sources and perspectives. This allows for more nuanced and complete responses, especially for complex questions. AI limiting search to a single authoritative source is incorrect because fan-out involves exploring multiple sources. AI searching only for exact keyword matches is too restrictive and contradicts the concept of broadening the search. AI distributing queries across multiple servers is a technical infrastructure detail, not a search methodology.