Introduction: Getting reliable, structured data from LLMs is one of the most practical challenges in building AI applications. Whether you’re extracting entities from text, generating API parameters, or building data pipelines, you need JSON that actually parses and validates against your schema. This guide covers the evolution of structured output techniques—from prompt engineering hacks to […]
Read more →Month: February 2024
LLM Inference Optimization: Caching, Batching, and Smart Routing
Introduction: LLM inference can be slow and expensive, especially at scale. Optimizing inference is crucial for production applications where latency and cost directly impact user experience and business viability. This guide covers practical optimization techniques: semantic caching to avoid redundant API calls, request batching for throughput, streaming for perceived latency, model quantization for self-hosted models, […]
Read more →Embedding Models Compared: OpenAI vs Cohere vs Voyage vs Open Source
Introduction: Embedding models convert text into dense vectors that capture semantic meaning. Choosing the right embedding model significantly impacts search quality, retrieval accuracy, and application performance. This guide compares leading embedding models—OpenAI’s text-embedding-3, Cohere’s embed-v3, Voyage AI, and open-source alternatives like BGE and E5. We cover benchmarks, pricing, dimension trade-offs, and practical guidance on selecting […]
Read more →Vector Database Comparison: Pinecone vs Weaviate vs Qdrant vs Chroma – Choosing the Right One for Your RAG Application
Last March, a 3AM alert changed everything. Our Pinecone bill had tripled overnight, and I spent the next three months migrating between vector databases, learning hard lessons about what actually matters. Let me share what I discovered—and what I wish someone had told me. Figure 1: Comprehensive comparison of vector database options The Night Everything […]
Read more →RAG Optimization: Query Rewriting, Hybrid Search, and Re-ranking
Introduction: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) grounds LLM responses in factual data, but naive implementations often retrieve irrelevant content or miss important information. Optimizing RAG requires attention to every stage: query understanding, retrieval strategies, re-ranking, and context integration. This guide covers practical optimization techniques: query rewriting and expansion, hybrid search combining dense and sparse retrieval, re-ranking with […]
Read more →LLM Routing and Model Selection: Optimizing Cost and Quality in Production
Introduction: Not every query needs GPT-4. Routing simple questions to cheaper, faster models while reserving expensive models for complex tasks can cut costs by 70% or more without sacrificing quality. Smart LLM routing is the difference between a $10,000/month AI bill and a $3,000 one. This guide covers implementing intelligent model selection: classifying query complexity, […]
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