Test & Learn Community
The TLC supports data & experimentation professionals through education, webinars, networking, mentorship, & conferences.
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Coming Soon
TLC: Workshop - Ditch Big Tech AI, Build Your Own AI Tech Stack with Iqbal Ali (registration required)
Hi TLCers!
Super excited for this workshop by my friend, Iqbal Ali. If you miss his 11 Sept talk, I highly encourage you to head over to the TLC YouTube channel and catch the recording before this workshop. It will give you a great overview of the topic and help you prepare for this session.
Description
Create your own "Anti-Big-Tech" stack
How to create a custom "stack" using language models that are more ethical, sustainable, and cheaper than Big Tech
How to source models based on your personal requirements
Learn to "shop" and "benchmark" language models in OpenRouter to pick the right solution for you
How to ditch the "Big-Tech" chat interfaces
Whistle-stop tour of the alternative chat interfaces that allow you to choose whichever model you want
How to run models on your local machine
Learn how to migrate to using AI on your local machine for ultimate privacy
Why this matters
Big Tech companies are unethical, unsustainable, and expensive. They don’t have our best interests at heart. But the technology, whilst a little over-hyped, can genuinely be useful.
What if we could still benefit from the technology without funding Big Tech and their damaging ways? We can. It's just up to us to take those steps.
Join this 90 min interactive workshop, 16 September 2026,
8 AM Pacific | 9 AM Mountain | 10 AM Central | 11 AM Eastern | 4 PM BST
*Zoom details will be shared on the TLC Slack community on the day of the event!
You can also now subscribe directly to the event calendar to the left.
TLC: Big Tech Model Delusion And The Case For Small Models with Iqbal Ali
Hi TLCers!
Let's do this. I'm super excited to welcome back my friend, Iqbal Ali, as he covers one of the more important topics of our times: small models vs LLM - and makes the case that you can do just as much (or more!) with the smaller, more secure, more environmentally friendly models. Join the conversation to learn more - then join next week (Sept 16) for an interactive workshop where he will walk you through several steps to get you started with your own small model building.
Description
There's a belief that we need large models, especially for tasks such as coding. There's a belief that Anthropic's Sonnet and Opus are the best options available. That an expensive subscription to a Big Tech company is the price of quality performance.
This kind of thinking is simplistic.
I've been working with and testing small models for a while now. I've shared the massive cost savings on offer when switching to small models. But it's not just about price. Some of these models are very capable and compete well with Big Tech's "frontier" models.
What's more, if we are open to changing the way we work, we can reach for even smaller models, some of which can run on consumer-grade local hardware we already own. Failing that, there are plenty of cloud-hosted versions available for us to use.
Meanwhile, Big Tech is using the money we pay them to take our jobs, consume valuable resources, and disrupt society for the worse. We don't need to play their game.
We experimenters are great critical thinkers, and optimisation is what we do best. What happens when we apply this mindset to experimenting with small models and alternative ways of working? Let's discuss!
Join us, 11 September, 2026
8 AM Pacific | 9 AM Mountain | 10 AM Central | 11 AM Eastern | 4 PM BST
*Zoom details will be shared on the TLC Slack community on the day of the event!
You can also now subscribe directly to the event calendar to the left.