Category: Emerging Technologies

Introduction: Semantic search using embeddings has transformed how we find information. Unlike keyword search, embeddings capture meaning—finding documents about “machine learning” when you search for “AI training.” This guide covers building production embedding search systems: choosing embedding models, computing and storing vectors efficiently, implementing similarity search with various distance metrics, and optimizing for speed and… Continue reading

Introduction: Effective conversational AI requires more than just calling an LLM—it needs thoughtful conversation design. This includes managing multi-turn context, handling user intent, graceful error recovery, and maintaining consistent personality. This guide covers essential conversation patterns: intent classification and routing, slot filling for structured data collection, conversation state machines, context window management, and building chatbots… Continue reading

Introduction: Prompt engineering has emerged as one of the most critical skills in the AI era. The difference between a mediocre AI response and an exceptional one often comes down to how you structure your prompt. After years of working with large language models across production systems, I’ve distilled the most effective techniques into this… Continue reading

Introduction: LLM API calls are expensive and slow. Caching is your first line of defense against runaway costs and latency. But caching LLM responses isn’t straightforward—the same question phrased differently should return the same cached answer. This guide covers caching strategies for LLM applications: exact match caching for deterministic queries, semantic caching using embeddings for… Continue reading

Introduction: LLM APIs have strict rate limits—requests per minute, tokens per minute, and concurrent request limits. Exceeding these limits results in 429 errors that can cascade through your application. Effective rate limiting on your side prevents hitting API limits, provides fair access across users, and enables graceful degradation under load. This guide covers practical rate… Continue reading

Introduction: Vector embeddings are the foundation of modern AI applications—from semantic search to RAG systems to recommendation engines. They transform text, images, and other data into dense numerical representations that capture semantic meaning, enabling machines to understand similarity and relationships in ways that traditional keyword matching never could. This guide provides a deep dive into… Continue reading

Introduction: Processing thousands or millions of items through LLMs requires different patterns than single-request applications. Naive sequential processing is too slow, while uncontrolled parallelism hits rate limits and wastes money on retries. This guide covers production batch processing patterns: chunking strategies, parallel execution with rate limiting, progress tracking, checkpoint/resume for long jobs, cost estimation, and… Continue reading

Introduction: Fine-tuning adapts pre-trained language models to specific tasks, domains, or behaviors. While prompting works for many use cases, fine-tuning delivers better performance, lower latency, and reduced costs for specialized applications. This guide covers modern fine-tuning approaches: full fine-tuning for maximum customization, LoRA and QLoRA for efficient parameter updates, preparing high-quality training data, using OpenAI… Continue reading