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Small Language Model (SLM)

Efficient language models optimized for specific tasks or resource-constrained environments.

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Definition

Small Language Models are compact AI models (typically 1-7B parameters) designed for efficiency while maintaining useful capabilities.

Why SLMs Matter: - Run on consumer hardware - Lower latency - Reduced costs - Edge deployment - Privacy (local processing)

  • **Leading SLMs:**
  • Phi-3: (Microsoft): 3.8B, strong reasoning
  • Gemma 2: (Google): 2B-9B, efficient
  • Llama 3.2: (Meta): 1B-3B, mobile-focused
  • Qwen 2.5: (Alibaba): Various sizes
  • Mistral 7B: Strong for size

Use Cases: - Mobile applications - On-device AI - High-volume processing - Cost-sensitive applications

Examples

Running Phi-3 on a laptop for quick code completion without internet.

Related Terms

Large Language Model (LLM)

AI models trained on massive text datasets that can understand and generate human-like text.

Inference

Using a trained AI model to make predictions on new, unseen data.

Quantization

Reducing model precision to decrease size and increase speed while maintaining quality.

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