Why Small Models Change the Risk Model
Small and specialized models are not inherently more dangerous than large models. They change the risk model because they are easier to multiply, specialize, route, fine-tune, merge, compress, replace, and compose.
The assurance shift
A single large model may be expensive to retrain and relatively stable between releases. A population of small specialists can change more frequently. That makes static certification stale faster and makes runtime composition part of the safety boundary.
The benefit side
Small models can improve cost, privacy, latency, local deployment, capability isolation, and maintenance. They can make systems more understandable when boundaries are disciplined.
The risk side
More interchangeable parts create more combinations, more suppliers, more version drift, more lineage edges, and more hidden interaction states. Isolated tests remain necessary, but they become less complete.