I’ve tried coding and every one I’ve tried fails unless really, really basic small functions like what you learn as a newbie compared to say 4o mini that can spit out more sensible stuff that works.

I’ve tried explanations and they just regurgitate sentences that can be irrelevant, wrong, or get stuck in a loop.

So. what can I actually use a small LLM for? Which ones? I ask because I have an old laptop and the GPU can’t really handle anything above 4B in a timely manner. 8B is about 1 t/s!

  • herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.mlEnglish
    51·
    4 days ago

    for coding tasks you need web search and RAG. It’s not the size of the model that matters, since even the largest models find solutions online.

      • wise_pancake@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        35 minutes ago

        Open webui lets you install a ton of different search providers out of the box, but you do need sn API key for most and I haven’t vetted them

        I’m trying to get Kagi to work with Phi4 and not having success.

        • catty@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          30 minutes ago

          Thanks, when I get some time soon, I’ll have another look at it and cherry ai with a local install of ollama

      • herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        Not on top of my head, but there must be something. llama.cpp and vllm have basically solved the inference problem for LLMs. What you need is a RAG solution on top that also combines it with web search.