An Illustrated Guide to AI Agents

Chapter 2. Large Language Models

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As we saw in Chapter 1, the large language model powers agents to go from observations to actions. In Figure 2-1, we can see this general workflow. Here, we color code the areas where the agent interacts with the user (on the left), and where the agent interacts with the environment (on the right).

Figure 2-1. The agent is a bridge between user and environment. The large language model (center) receives queries from the user and acts on the environment, using feedback from that environment to inform its next action.

Let’s take a simple example to unroll the loop we see in the Figure. The example is a simple information seeking agent trying to answer a question for a user using a web search tool. In Figure 2-2, we can see that interaction:

1. The user asks the agent a question

2. The agent uses web search tool, effectively pulling in information from the environment ...