Episodes

  • Llm Evaluation Metrics Explained 2024

    Llm Evaluation Metrics Explained 2024
    Jun 8 2026
    Build Log, with Nick Creighton. This week, the models went quiet. The outputs, once reliable, turned bland and hollow. When your systems falter and hope is your only strategy, it’s time to move past the demo. Nick recounts the death of the "vibe check"—that quick, gut-feeling review that fails when you’re not looking. He spent the last three months building a real validation pipeline, shifting from fragile prompts to a system that actually earns its keep. This is about fighting the silent decay of AI performance, about replacing theory with a foundation that holds while you sleep. For more detail on the validation build, find the companion post [link]. Listen to the full episode.
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    9 mins
  • Openai Api Vs Local Llama 3 Cost 2024

    Openai Api Vs Local Llama 3 Cost 2024
    Jun 8 2026
    Signal Notes. March 25th, 2024. A cold number on the dashboard at dawn. The hum of a server, the quiet click of a key. The cost of intelligence is plummeting, a 92% freefall in 14 months. The gap between cloud and local inference has narrowed to a sliver, a decimal point on a billing report. The raw data from Nick’s production run: $347.22 for the API, $412.00 for the rented hardware, plus the hidden tax of maintenance scripts and library conflicts. It’s a story told in tokens and receipts, not theory. A vibe of pragmatic calculation. The quiet awe of a shifting landscape. Read the numbers: [companion blog post link] Listen to the math.
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    25 mins
  • Ai Agent Frameworks Vs Traditional Automation 2024

    Ai Agent Frameworks Vs Traditional Automation 2024
    Jun 5 2026
    The old map is obsolete. It's being replaced by a compass. Traditional automation is a brittle, minimum-wage workforce. AI agents are something else entirely—navigators that work off-road. Nick put both systems to the test over three months across thirteen sites. The results weren't close. It’s a fundamental architectural shift happening right now in production, moving from rigid step-by-step processes to adaptive, goal-oriented execution. This isn't a future prediction. It's a present-tense reality measured in hours saved and systems that don't break. Dive into the data and the details in our companion post. Grab your headphones. Let's build.
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    9 mins
  • Rag Vs Fine-Tuning For Document Qa 2024

    Rag Vs Fine-Tuning For Document Qa 2024
    Jun 5 2026
    Build Log. I’m Nick. If you’re using a fine-tuned model for document Q&A, you’re likely burning cash for worse results. This is the critical build-vs-buy decision for your AI’s brain, and it’s a weekly invoice that decides if your project lives or dies. GPU costs are falling, but fine-tuning API prices haven’t. The real killer? Knowledge cutoffs. A perfectly formatted, completely wrong answer from a model trained on last year’s docs. RAG solves this inherently. New docs hit the vector store, and seconds later, your AI knows. No retraining. No extra cost. A three-month production test. The winner wasn’t close. Read the full breakdown on the blog. Listen to the episode.
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    9 mins
  • Fine-Tuning Transformers Vs Lora Vs Qlora 2024

    Fine-Tuning Transformers Vs Lora Vs Qlora 2024
    Jun 5 2026
    The old guard is out. The headlines make it sound like custom AI needs a bank of supercomputers and a team of PhDs. What if it doesn’t? Build Log, with Nick Creighton. A quiet story of shipping. This week, we move past the hype to the real workbench. The goalposts have moved. We’re talking about fine-tuning that’s faster, cheaper, and shockingly accessible—practical for the rest of us, running in the background of everything we build. Full breakdown: [Link to blog post] See how it fits together. Listen to Build Log.
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    8 mins
  • Local Ai Deployment Cost Analysis 2024

    Local Ai Deployment Cost Analysis 2024
    Jun 5 2026
    Build Log. Nick Creighton. A quiet rebellion against the cloud. The real cost of AI isn't in the API docs—it’s in the monthly bill. Nick just pulled his AI workflow in-house, deploying a private agent for his entire content network. The price tag? Under fifty bucks. This is about taking back control. It’s the hum of a local server, not the silent drain of a metered service. A breakdown of the hardware, the models, and the math they don’t want you to see. The vibe is autonomy. For the full cost analysis, see the companion post. Listen to the quiet hum of your own machine.
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    8 mins
  • Rag Evaluation Metrics

    Rag Evaluation Metrics
    Jun 5 2026
    Build Log with Nick Creighton. A demo that feels flawless can lie. Deploying a RAG system taught me that the hard way. Real users encountered confident, made-up answers. This episode is a wake-up call: trading gut checks for hard metrics. We move from art to science. From holding your breath at launch to trusting what you've built. It’s about finding the three numbers that tell you the truth before your users do. Stop guessing. Start measuring. Dive deeper in the companion blog post. Listen now.
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    8 mins
  • Local Ai Deployment Hardware Comparison 2024

    Local Ai Deployment Hardware Comparison 2024
    Jun 5 2026
    The cloud bill that broke the camel's back. Host Nick Creighton turns away from the API roulette wheel and into the quiet hum of local hardware. This is the off-grid manifesto for practical AI: the tangible clunk of a server in a closet, the silent blink of an LED on a SBC, and the stark reality of cost sheets compared to latency graphs. It's about reclaiming inference from the distant data center, finding the raw edge in your own rack, and the machines that make it possible without vaporizing your budget. A guide to the gear that actually works when real revenue is on the line. Dive deeper with the companion blog post: [link] Listen to the quiet revolution.
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    5 mins