Definition

Over-Provisioned LLM

A large language model deployment in which the model is being fed significantly more raw, unclean, or poorly structured data than necessary - compensating for data quality problems with raw compute power rather than fixing the underlying data. The result is higher cloud infrastructure costs, increased latency, and often lower output quality than a well-structured smaller-context approach would produce. David Carmel uses the metaphor of 'dropping bunker busters to break up data when a scalpel would work.' An over-provisioned LLM is typically a symptom of an upstream data quality problem that has not been addressed: rather than cleaning the data, the organization throws more model capacity at it and hopes the model can compensate.