Getting reliable, readable responses out of your LLM, and knowing which tool to reach for The post Structured Outputs with LLMs: JSON Mode, Function Calling, and When to Use Each appeared first on Towards Data Science .
By Maria Mouschoutzi
The article discusses insights gained from a deeper examination of Structured Outputs when dealing with messy, incomplete data. It highlights that even when a large language model returns perfectly formatted JSON, the content can still be incorrect. The author reflects on the implications of this observation for data science practices.
By Benjamin Nweke
Why use it? How to implement it?
By Shuai Guo
We are introducing Structured Outputs in the API—model outputs now reliably adhere to developer-supplied JSON Schemas.
The article discusses five failure modes that can slip through constrained decoding in large language models, explaining why these errors are not detected by schema validators. It highlights that even when JSON output is syntactically valid, the underlying data can still be incorrect. The post serves as a warning that relying solely on schema validation is insufficient for ensuring correct structured outputs from LLMs.
By Mostafa Ibrahim
The article explains how to transform a small open‑source Qwen LLM into a fast, single‑pass text classifier by replacing its language‑modeling head with a JEV model. It provides a step‑by‑step guide to swapping the head, enabling the LLM to perform classification tasks efficiently. The process leverages the flexibility of open‑source models to create a lightweight, high‑performance classifier.
By Anubhab Banerjee