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Ants: routing and our own terms (from Nov 2026)

VLM

Vision-language model
An AI that can look at an image and describe or judge it. Useful as a reviewer of a render, not as a router.

How it looks

Drawing: an AI tool, not part of a board
IMAGE INVLMAI modelWORDS OUT"the ambertrack runsclose to thechip edge;worth asecond look"
Illustration of the idea: a picture of a board goes in, a written judgement comes out. The words are an invented example, not a real review.

How it works

WHAT A VLM IS GOOD AT, AND WHAT NOTit sees a picture,like a person woulduseful: reviewerspots odd shapes, crowdedcorners, a missing labelnot useful: routertracks must be legal tothousandths of a mm;a picture is too coarseso in Ants:exact tools do the routing,KiCad referees, a VLM mayreview the rendered board

Where it fits

A possible reviewer of the 3D render made at the verify stage, next to KiCad's DRC and a human.

Contrast with a learned (RL) router, which is also AI but is trained to place copper itself.

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