The ability to use tools, also known as function calls, has become a valuable mechanism for enabling LLMs to expand their capabilities beyond out-of-box pre-trained capabilities. This is especially important in bridging the abilities that LLMs are known to lack. Tools also link existing APIs and systems to expand, automate, optimise or enable a broader range of tasks.
Many models, including OpenAI GPTs and Anthropic Claude 3, support tools use out of the box. For models that do not natively support tools and function calls, third-party frameworks specifically designed to excel in this area are available. For example, LangChain has built-in tools to run SQL queries, perform calculations, and perform vector searches. When the built-in tools donโt do what you need, you can define custom tools to expand LangChainโs capabilities.