The top two boxes change the input; only the purple box at the bottom changes the weights The order for choosing Ask from the top 1 · Promptchanges inputdraw out what the model can do if it needs facts the model lacks 2 · RAGchanges inputinsert only the relevant documents if one format runs at huge volume 3 · Fine-tuningchanges weightsbake the repeated format into weights 1 and 2 together is the most common AI · EssaysLLM prompting vs RAG vs fine‑tuningweights or input?I spend a good part of every day working with AI, for code and for writing. Yet I couldn't explain how the model was built, or in what order it computes an answer to what I send it.Sep 24, 2026