Feed aggregator
Show HN: Shrewd – what I learned distilling LLM labels into local classifiers
General purpose LLMs, and classifiers like Jev, are nice and easy to use right away. That makes the pain of labelling data and creating specialized models for simple tasks not seem worth it, but for a project I am working on, I needed to create a large number of specialized models that could run efficiently on-device.
This project started as a way for me to test if GEPA could get frontier LLMs to generate better labels for me. I had mixed results. It works better on weaker models than on true frontier models, but there were definitely some gains.
I decided I'd rerun some of the flows on public datasets that are often used for these comparisons and post it, as I'm curious 1) what results others get with it, and 2) what ideas others have for doing a better job of this.
I've tried to document everything I could thoroughly, but always happy to chat.
Some things I want to try next: 1) Generating synthetic questions to train on, not just the labels, likely by using multiple models to validate agreement on whether it's a worthwhile question to add to the set 2) Support RAG in the labelling flow by simply pointing to some docs or a corpus and have the rest be automated
I couldn't think of a good project name so shrewd is just: shrew->something small, and d-> distillation. I know distillation is a bit of a loaded word right now, but this is more just a labelling task, and into very small single-purpose models, so it is hopefully not an issue.
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49807276
Points: 3
# Comments: 0
Show HN: Riftri – copy-on-write Git worktrees for running agents in parallel
Article URL: https://twitter.com/KinfishT/status/2102093551601684897
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49807251
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
The JavaScript Midlife Crisis
Article URL: https://maroun-baydoun.com/blog/javascript-midlife-crisis/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49807248
Points: 3
# Comments: 0
Open source tool for building hierarchical agent loops
Article URL: https://github.com/plasma-ai/fractal
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49807198
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
How the Barcode Was Invented
Article URL: https://worldofsystems.co/invention-of-the-barcode/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49807174
Points: 1
# Comments: 1
A CPU Runs a Program [video]
Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTTL5heVB6E
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806670
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Scientists Have Worked Out When Earth Will Run Out of Oxygen
Article URL: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/when-will-earth-run-out-of-oxygen
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806655
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
DeepSeek Elastic Compute:A Sandbox Infrastructure for Effective Agentic Training
Article URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22978
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806630
Points: 2
# Comments: 0
Horowitz Andreessen Academy
Article URL: https://twitter.com/gaganbiyani/status/2102404344351973825
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806588
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Google Text: a clean, lightweight editor for Android Desktop (GoogleBook)
Article URL: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.desktop.texteditor&hl=en_US
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806584
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
How an American naval officer cut weeks off the ocean voyages in the 1840's
Article URL: https://twitter.com/BartGonnissen/status/2101943994238271577
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806578
Points: 2
# Comments: 1
I Bought a Scanner (No, Really This Time)
Article URL: https://leejo.github.io/2026/09/22/scanner_final/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806576
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Trump rejects global entity for AI oversight
Article URL: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/22/trump-rejects-global-entity-ai-oversight-01087546
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806558
Points: 4
# Comments: 0
An autonomous AI company could run itself. It still couldn't find a market
Article URL: https://autonomouscompany.substack.com/p/the-company-could-run-itself-it-still
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806554
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
US to build two military bases in Greenland under new deal with Denmark
Article URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9dr74g32g8go
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806521
Points: 1
# Comments: 1
Maskr – Catch personal data before it reaches AI chatbots (100% client-side)
Article URL: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/maskr-private-ai-leak-gua/adncldmdaamhlpcccigfhdipjhpicebe
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806518
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Active Storage image optimization at scale: lessons from 1,916 conference photos
Article URL: https://avohq.io/blog/active-storage-image-optimization-at-scale-lessons-from-1-916-conference-photos
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806502
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Apple Wallet driver's licenses coming to three new states soon
Article URL: https://9to5mac.com/2026/09/22/apple-wallet-drivers-licenses-coming-to-three-new-states-soon/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806496
Points: 2
# Comments: 0
Senior-care app that works with any wearable via Health Connect
Article URL: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitwell&hl=en_US
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49806487
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
