AI Agents and Tool Use
Language models that act: plan, call tools like search or calculators, read the results and continue until the task is done.
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Introduction. A chatbot answers from what it already knows. An AI agent can take actions: search the web, run code, check a calendar, and use the results to finish a task.
A tool-using agent. Here the model does not guess the arithmetic. It calls a calculator tool: 2,450 times 0.18 is 441. It calls it again for the total, 2,891, and only then answers. The model decides which tool to call, reads the result, and continues.
The loop. Agents run a loop. Plan the next step, call a tool, observe the result, decide whether the task is done, and repeat until it is time to answer.
Safety. Agents need careful design. Show what they are doing. Ask for approval before payments, deletions or sending messages. Give only the permissions a task needs. And treat text found on web pages as data, not as instructions, to avoid prompt injection.
Recap. To recap. Agents combine language models with tools, loop through planning, acting and observing, get exact and current results, and should ask people before risky actions.