Learning Loop Blog https://gradientdisco.com/blog/ Thinking on AI strategy, model optimisation, and building sovereign AI systems that compound in value over time. en Teaching an Agent From Outcomes: Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Step AI Processes https://gradientdisco.com/blog/teaching-an-agent-from-outcomes.html Prompt tuning and fine-tuning both require labelled examples of correct behaviour. But for complex multi-step agent workflows, you often can only say whether the overall outcome was good. Reinforcement learning is exactly the right tool for that setting. Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://gradientdisco.com/blog/teaching-an-agent-from-outcomes.html Fine-Tuning a Small Model on Your Data: What It Takes and What You Get https://gradientdisco.com/blog/fine-tuning-a-small-model-on-your-data.html A fine-tuned 7B model trained on your domain data will outperform a frontier model on generic prompts for well-defined tasks — consistently, cheaply, and without sending your data to a third-party endpoint. Here is what the process actually involves. Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://gradientdisco.com/blog/fine-tuning-a-small-model-on-your-data.html Prompt Tuning Without the Guesswork: How Genetic Optimisation Replaces Manual Iteration https://gradientdisco.com/blog/prompt-tuning-without-the-guesswork.html Manual prompt engineering has no real feedback loop — you iterate by feel, test on a handful of examples, and hope it generalises. Genetic optimisation replaces that process with a systematic search over production traces. Here is how it works. Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://gradientdisco.com/blog/prompt-tuning-without-the-guesswork.html Three Ways to Make AI Better at Your Job: Prompt Tuning, Fine-Tuning, and Reinforcement Learning https://gradientdisco.com/blog/three-ways-to-make-ai-better-at-your-job.html There are three distinct strategies for making an AI model better at a specific job. Each works differently, costs differently, and produces a different kind of asset. Here is how to choose. Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://gradientdisco.com/blog/three-ways-to-make-ai-better-at-your-job.html Why 'Human in the Loop' Is Broken — and What to Do Instead https://gradientdisco.com/blog/why-human-in-the-loop-is-broken.html Human-in-the-loop sounds safe. But it contains a structural flaw that guarantees the one genuinely dangerous decision gets the same shallow glance as the thousandth routine one. Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://gradientdisco.com/blog/why-human-in-the-loop-is-broken.html Two Ways to Measure What Your AI Doesn't Know https://gradientdisco.com/blog/two-ways-to-measure-what-your-ai-doesnt-know.html LLMs cannot reliably report their own uncertainty — so you have to measure it from the outside. Here are the two methods that work, and when to use each. Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://gradientdisco.com/blog/two-ways-to-measure-what-your-ai-doesnt-know.html The Only AI Metric That Actually Matters: The Cost of Being Wrong https://gradientdisco.com/blog/the-cost-of-being-wrong.html Most AI deployments chase benchmark accuracy. But in production, value isn't destroyed by average errors — it's destroyed by the single ruinous tail event you didn't cap. Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://gradientdisco.com/blog/the-cost-of-being-wrong.html Why Fine-Tuned Small Models Beat Prompt Engineering at Scale https://gradientdisco.com/blog/why-fine-tuned-small-models-beat-prompt-engineering.html Prompt engineering is a great starting point — but at production scale, a fine-tuned 7B model running on your own infrastructure will outperform a frontier model on generic prompts every time. Here is why, and when to make the switch. Tue, 10 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://gradientdisco.com/blog/why-fine-tuned-small-models-beat-prompt-engineering.html