Lesson 1855 of 2116
AI and frontier vs small model tradeoff
Frontier models are accurate; small models are cheap and fast. Most apps need both, routed by task.
Lesson map
What this lesson covers
Learning path
The main moves in order
- 1The premise
- 2frontier model
- 3small model
- 4routing
Concept cluster
Terms to connect while reading
Section 1
The premise
Using one model for every task is wasteful. Routing simple tasks to small models and hard ones to frontier models cuts cost without hurting quality.
What AI does well here
- Suggest a routing rubric.
- Identify tasks small models handle well.
- Estimate savings from routing.
What AI cannot do
- Know your exact quality threshold.
- Replace a routing eval.
- Predict model deprecations.
Key terms in this lesson
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