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20232020s
AI Agents & Tool Use
Equipping LLMs with the ability to dynamically call external APIs, calculators, and search browsers.
Why It Was Important
Models evolved from passive text generators into active 'Agents'. By teaching models JSON API specs, they could realize they lack facts, pause text generation, trigger a Python script to scrape a website, parse the output, and resume generation. This is the foundation of Artificial General Competence.
Who Invented It
AI Open Source Community / Toolformer paper
Researchers linking textual generation to functional internet interaction.
Applications
- AutoGPT
- ChatGPT Plugins
- Autonomous Web Navigation
Key Papers
- Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools
Timo Schick et al. · NeurIPS 2023