
Inference engineering and the real-world deployment of LLMs, with Philip Kiely
From Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11) by Patrick McKenzie
March 12, 2026 · 1h 24m · Episode 82
About this episode
Patrick McKenzie and Philip Kiely discuss the inference stack and the real-world deployment of LLMs.
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) and Philip Kiely, early employee at Baseten, discuss the inference stack: the critical layer of software and hardware that sits between a model’s weights and a user’s prompt. They cover inference engineering, how intermediate layers are evolving over a technical stack that is changing every six months, and how sophisticated organizations are actually consuming LLMs beyond just writing their questions into chatbot apps. – Full transcript available here: www.complexsystemspodcast.com/inference-engineering-with-philip-kiely/ – Presenting Sponsors: Mercury , Meter, & Granola Complex Systems is presented by Mercury —radically better banking for founders. Mercury offers the best wire experience anywhere: fast, reliable, and free for domestic U.S. wires, so you can stay focused on growing your business. Apply online in minutes at mercury.com . Networking infrastructure has a way of accumulating technical debt faster than almost anything else in IT. Meter handles the full stack (wired, wireless, and cellular) as a single integrated solution: designed, deployed, and managed end-to-end so there's only one vendor to call when something goes wrong. Visit…
People in this episode
Host: Patrick McKenzie
Guest: Philip Kiely
Topics covered
- inference engineering
- LLMs
- technical stack
- software deployment
- business applications
Keywords
- inference stack
- LLMs
- software engineering
- technical debt
- business growth
Sponsors
Mercury, Meter, Granola
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Baseten
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