Lesson 1522 of 2116
Fine-tuning vs RAG: choosing the right knob
Fine-tuning teaches behavior; RAG injects facts. Picking the wrong knob wastes months — picking both costs more.
Lesson map
What this lesson covers
Learning path
The main moves in order
- 1The premise
- 2fine-tune
- 3RAG
- 4behavior vs knowledge
Concept cluster
Terms to connect while reading
Section 1
The premise
Fine-tuning shifts model behavior; RAG provides context at runtime. Most teams need RAG first, fine-tuning rarely, and evaluation always.
What AI does well here
- Diagnose whether a problem is behavior or knowledge.
- Estimate cost and time-to-value for each path.
What AI cannot do
- Eliminate the need for a real eval suite.
- Make fine-tuning a substitute for clean data.
Key terms in this lesson
End-of-lesson quiz
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