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Understanding AI Agents: A Comprehensive Guide
In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, AI agents have emerged as a transformative technology that could revolutionize how we interact with and leverage AI systems. Based on insights from Chip Huyen’s analysis, let’s explore what AI agents are, how they work, and their potential impact.
What Are AI Agents?
At their core, AI agents are systems that can perceive their environment and act upon it. They are characterized by two main elements:
- The environment they operate in (e.g., a game, the internet, or a computer system)
- The set of actions they can perform through their available tools
For example, ChatGPT is an agent that can search the web, execute Python code, and generate images. Even RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems are agents, using tools like text retrievers and SQL executors.
The Power of Tools
Tools are what make AI agents truly powerful. They come in three main categories:
1. Knowledge Augmentation
- Text and image retrievers
- SQL executors
- Web browsers
- Internal knowledge base access
