AI School › How it’s built inside · Lesson 69 of 130

📱 Small models in your phone

Light AIs that fit in a phone and work without internet.

Not all AIs live in huge faraway sheds. Some are so slim they fit inside your phone, like a pony instead of a workhorse. They are small models, with fewer weights, trained to do a few things well instead of knowing everything. Thanks to them your phone can correct what you type, recognize your voice or translate a sign even when there is no internet. The secret is lightness: engineers trim the model, remove the extras and make it small enough to run on a battery.

Having AI inside the device has two nice advantages. First, it is fast: it does not have to send the question to a distant computer and wait for the reply, it does everything right there, in your pocket. Second, it protects your privacy: your data stays in the phone without traveling around the world, like a diary you keep locked in a drawer instead of mailing it. Of course, a small model knows less than a giant one and sometimes makes more mistakes. But for many everyday tasks it is perfect, and it proves that AI does not have to be enormous to be useful.

🎒 Try it in class (or at home)

Put your phone in airplane mode and try the autocorrect or dictation: does it work without internet? That is a small model.

← Lesson 68: Why big models know more · Lesson 70: What happens when you press enter →

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