Winning Big With Small AI

Winning Big With Small AI

Mark Watson
Buy on Leanpub

Table of Contents

Winning Big With Small AI

  • Preface
    • Choosing Which “Small AI” Tools to Use in This Book
  • Part I - Advantages of Small AI With Examples
  • Advantages of Small Models with Examples That Might Surprise You
    • The Great Divergence: Redefining Intelligence in the Post-Scale Era
    • The Cloud Efficiency Champion: Anatomy of Gemini 3 Flash
    • The Local Insurgency: Qwen 3 and other Local Models Provide Democratization of Reasoning
    • The Physics of Thought: Theoretical Mechanisms
    • Sovereignty and Solvency: The Economic and Legal Case
    • Surprising Realities: Case Studies
    • Horizon 2026: The Future of Distributed Intelligence
  • Drawbacks of Small AI
    • Reduced Reasoning Depth and Nuance
    • Higher Propensity for Hallucination
    • Limited Context Window and Memory Management
    • Fragility in Prompt Following
    • Security and Support Disparities
    • Wrap Up for Drawbacks of Small AI
  • Part II - Defining Metrics for Success Using LLMs
  • Defining Metrics for Success Using LLMs
    • Operational Metrics: The Small AI Advantage
    • Quality Metrics: The “LLM-as-a-Judge” Pattern
    • RAG Metrics: The Trinity of Trust
    • Deterministic Guardrails
    • The Golden Ratio: Accuracy per Watt
    • Code Example: The Judge Pattern
    • Wrap Up for LLM Metrics
    • Optional Practice Problems
  • A Fair Shootout: Evaluating Large vs. Small Models for Task Fitness
    • The Setup for RAG: David vs. Goliath
    • Fairness: Adjusting Problem Setups for Small vs. Large Models
    • Comparing Small vs. Large Models for NLP and Extracting Structured Data From Text
    • Wrap Up for Evaluating Large vs. Small Models for Task Fitness
  • Part III - Python Examples for Switching Between Models
  • Using the LiteLLM Library to Easily Switch Between Models and Model Providers
    • Tool Use with LiteLLM
    • LiteLLM Wrap Up
    • Optional Practice Problems
  • Automatically Routing to the ‘Best’ Model Using RouteLLM Library
    • Implementation of a Command Line Query Utility Using RouteLLM
    • Optional Practice Problems
  • Part IV - Fast and Efficient Rag Document System
  • RAG Using zvec Vector Datastore and Gemini-3-flash Model
    • Design Notes for Example Program
    • Example zvec RAG Application
    • Sample Example Output
    • Wrap Up for the zvex Based RAG Application
    • Optional Practice Problems
  • Part V - Using Small AI for Agentic Applications
  • Using Hermes Agent From Nous Research as a Self-Improving Personal AI Agent
    • What Makes Hermes Agent Different
    • Model Agnostic: Using Small AI With Hermes
    • Security and Privacy Considerations
    • Installing Hermes Agent
    • A Walkthrough: Using Hermes Agent
    • Hermes Agent and the Small AI Philosophy
    • Hermes Agent for MLOps and Training Data Generation
    • Wrap Up for Hermes Agent
  • Using OpenCode as a Local-First Agentic Coding Assistant
    • What Is OpenCode?
    • Installing OpenCode
    • Configuring OpenCode for Local Models
    • A Practical Workflow With OpenCode
    • Small AI Considerations for OpenCode
    • OpenCode Zen: Curated Models for Coding
    • Wrap Up for OpenCode
  • Wrap Up for Winning Big With Small AI
    • The Engineering Reality: From Vibes to Metrics
    • The Architecture of Hybrid Intelligence
    • The “Fitness for Purpose” Philosophy
    • Sovereignty, Solvency, and Sustainability
    • Final Recommendations for Your Journey
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Winning Big With Small AI

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Winning Big With Small AI16 chapters

Begin ›
  1. Preface

  2. Part I - Advantages of Small AI With Examples

  3. Advantages of Small Models with Examples That Might Surprise You

  4. Drawbacks of Small AI

  5. Part II - Defining Metrics for Success Using LLMs

  6. Defining Metrics for Success Using LLMs

  7. A Fair Shootout: Evaluating Large vs. Small Models for Task Fitness

  8. Part III - Python Examples for Switching Between Models

  9. Using the LiteLLM Library to Easily Switch Between Models and Model Providers

  10. Automatically Routing to the ‘Best’ Model Using RouteLLM Library

  11. Part IV - Fast and Efficient Rag Document System

  12. RAG Using zvec Vector Datastore and Gemini-3-flash Model

  13. Part V - Using Small AI for Agentic Applications

  14. Using Hermes Agent From Nous Research as a Self-Improving Personal AI Agent

  15. Using OpenCode as a Local-First Agentic Coding Assistant

  16. Wrap Up for Winning Big With Small AI