Notes on biotech R&D, AI engineering, and the seams where they meet — from McIntosh Consulting.https://vernonmcintosh.com/en-ushttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/multi-model-llm-dispatch/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/multi-model-llm-dispatch/When you dispatch the same tightly-specified task to GPT-5, GLM-5.1, GLM-4.6, and DeepSeek-V3 in parallel, the failure modes are model-specific in ways that matter. A working set of rules for choosing the right model per task.Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI Engineeringhttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/hidden-cost-agent-swarms/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/hidden-cost-agent-swarms/Decomposing work across multiple AI agents often costs more than a single well-designed agent — here is why that happens and what the numbers actually look like.Sat, 09 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI Architecturehttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/ai-augmented-bioprocess/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/ai-augmented-bioprocess/AI and ML are shifting bioprocess development from trial-and-error to data-driven optimization by giving scientists pattern recognition across thousands of fermentation runs that no human can replicate manually.Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTBiotechhttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/synthetic-biology-stack/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/synthetic-biology-stack/Biotech companies that adopt software engineering practices (version control for strains, CI/CD for genetic constructs, automated testing for phenotypes) will outcompete those that don't.Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTBiotechhttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/validating-synthetic-genomics/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/validating-synthetic-genomics/As synthetic genomic data becomes critical for ML training and privacy-preserving research, we need validation frameworks that measure fidelity, utility, and privacy, not just statistical similarity.Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTData Sciencehttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/git-repo-system-boundary/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/git-repo-system-boundary/A git repository is the natural and complete system boundary for AI-driven document workflows. Everything the agent needs already lives in or can be referenced from a repo.Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI Architecturehttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/smallest-unit-of-work/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/smallest-unit-of-work/When decomposing tasks for AI agents, there's a granularity floor: a point below which further decomposition creates more overhead than value.Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI Architecturehttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/knowing-that-you-know/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/knowing-that-you-know/Most AI memory architectures have two states: knowing and not knowing. A third state, knowing that you know, lets systems scale beyond their context window without loading everything at once.Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTAI Architecturehttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/innovation-driven-by-ability/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/innovation-driven-by-ability/Capability expansion precedes need articulation. The most consequential technologies in history weren't solutions to articulated problems.Tue, 02 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTR&D Strategyhttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/rnd-first-bullseye/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/rnd-first-bullseye/The R&D-First Bullseye Model reverses traditional market-led approaches by starting with technical possibility and working outward toward market validation.Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTInnovationhttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/gold-mine-lost-proposals/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/gold-mine-lost-proposals/Your organization's lost proposals and unpursued opportunities aren't failures. They're an asset library waiting to be indexed.Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTBusiness Developmenthttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/context-window-viewport/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/context-window-viewport/Knowledge map traversal (navigating structured graphs on-demand instead of loading entire databases) is the superior pattern regardless of context window size.Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTAI Architecturehttps://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/democratization-salesforce-dev/https://vernonmcintosh.com/blog/democratization-salesforce-dev/Enterprise and scientific software has a long tail of capability most teams never reach because it is locked behind syntax. AI coding assistants change where in the workflow that translation happens.Mon, 08 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTAI + Tools