This table provides a side-by-side comparison of four major categories in artificial intelligence: General AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), Small Language Models (SLMs), and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). It breaks down their key characteristics—including scope, size, training data, computational needs, flexibility, cost, speed, knowledge currency, and ideal use cases—to help readers quickly understand the strengths, limitations, and best applications for each approach.