Tool Use for Claude lets the large language model (LLM) plug into external data sources and APIs and « reason » about tools to use to answer a request.
An increasingly popular trend in generative artificial intelligence is to give AI models « agent » capabilities, the power to tap into external programs such as databases, or a web browser with live search functionality.
OpenAI popularized the notion of AI agents in November when it introduced its « Assistant » API, meant to make it easier for developers to call specific functions for their applications. On Thursday, OpenAI competitor Anthropic made its bid for developers’ focus by making generally available what it calls Tool Use for Claude, which is designed « to automate tasks, personalize recommendations, and streamline data analysis by integrating AI with external tools and services. »
Anthropic debuted Tool Use, also known as function calling, with the introduction of its Claude 3 family of models in March. There’s already a fairly extensive set of posted instructions for developers for how to use the API in the beta version.
