AI / ML

Tool Use (Function Calling)

An LLM capability where the model generates structured calls to external tools/functions rather than just text. The model decides which tool to invoke and with what parameters. Examples: calling an API, executing code, querying a database, or reading a file. Tool use enables agents to interact with the real world. Claude, GPT-4, and Gemini support native tool use.

IDtool-useAliasFunction Calling

Plain meaning

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An LLM capability where the model generates structured calls to external tools/functions rather than just text. The model decides which tool to invoke and with what parameters. Examples: calling an API, executing code, querying a database, or reading a file. Tool use enables agents to interact with the real world. Claude, GPT-4, and Gemini support native tool use.

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LLMs, RAG, embeddings, inference, and agent-facing primitives.

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Tool Use (Function Calling) (tool-use)
Category: AI / ML
Definition: An LLM capability where the model generates structured calls to external tools/functions rather than just text. The model decides which tool to invoke and with what parameters. Examples: calling an API, executing code, querying a database, or reading a file. Tool use enables agents to interact with the real world. Claude, GPT-4, and Gemini support native tool use.
Aliases: Function Calling
Related: AI Agent, LLM (Large Language Model)
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Concept graph

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Branch

AI Agent

An autonomous AI system that can plan, use tools, and take actions to accomplish goals. Agents use LLMs as the reasoning core and have access to tools (APIs, code execution, web browsing, database queries). In blockchain: agents can analyze smart contracts, execute transactions, monitor DeFi positions, and automate trading strategies. Frameworks: LangChain, CrewAI, Claude Agent SDK.

Branch

LLM (Large Language Model)

A neural network trained on vast text corpora to understand and generate human language. LLMs (GPT-4, Claude, Llama, Gemini) use transformer architectures with billions of parameters. They power chatbots, code generation, summarization, and reasoning tasks. In blockchain development, LLMs assist with smart contract writing, audit review, documentation, and code explanation.

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AI / ML

AI Agent

An autonomous AI system that can plan, use tools, and take actions to accomplish goals. Agents use LLMs as the reasoning core and have access to tools (APIs, code execution, web browsing, database queries). In blockchain: agents can analyze smart contracts, execute transactions, monitor DeFi positions, and automate trading strategies. Frameworks: LangChain, CrewAI, Claude Agent SDK.

AI / ML

LLM (Large Language Model)

A neural network trained on vast text corpora to understand and generate human language. LLMs (GPT-4, Claude, Llama, Gemini) use transformer architectures with billions of parameters. They power chatbots, code generation, summarization, and reasoning tasks. In blockchain development, LLMs assist with smart contract writing, audit review, documentation, and code explanation.

AI / ML

Training (ML)

The process of optimizing a model's parameters by exposing it to data and adjusting weights to minimize a loss function. Pre-training on large datasets creates foundation models. Training LLMs requires massive compute (thousands of GPUs, weeks/months). Training data quality, diversity, and size directly impact model capabilities. Distinguished from fine-tuning (smaller scale, specific domain).

AI / ML

Tokenomics

The economic design of a cryptocurrency token: supply schedule, distribution, utility, incentive mechanisms, and value accrual. Key parameters: total/circulating supply, inflation/deflation, vesting schedules, staking rewards, fee burning, and governance rights. Good tokenomics aligns incentives between users, developers, and token holders. AI tools increasingly help analyze tokenomics models.

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AI / MLagent-ai

AI Agent

An autonomous AI system that can plan, use tools, and take actions to accomplish goals. Agents use LLMs as the reasoning core and have access to tools (APIs, code execution, web browsing, database queries). In blockchain: agents can analyze smart contracts, execute transactions, monitor DeFi positions, and automate trading strategies. Frameworks: LangChain, CrewAI, Claude Agent SDK.

AI / MLllm

LLM (Large Language Model)

A neural network trained on vast text corpora to understand and generate human language. LLMs (GPT-4, Claude, Llama, Gemini) use transformer architectures with billions of parameters. They power chatbots, code generation, summarization, and reasoning tasks. In blockchain development, LLMs assist with smart contract writing, audit review, documentation, and code explanation.

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AI / ML

LLM (Large Language Model)

A neural network trained on vast text corpora to understand and generate human language. LLMs (GPT-4, Claude, Llama, Gemini) use transformer architectures with billions of parameters. They power chatbots, code generation, summarization, and reasoning tasks. In blockchain development, LLMs assist with smart contract writing, audit review, documentation, and code explanation.

AI / ML

Transformer

The neural network architecture underlying modern LLMs, introduced in 'Attention Is All You Need' (2017). Transformers use self-attention mechanisms to process input sequences in parallel (unlike recurrent networks). Key components: multi-head attention, positional encoding, feedforward layers, and layer normalization. Variants include encoder-only (BERT), decoder-only (GPT), and encoder-decoder (T5).

AI / ML

Attention Mechanism

A neural network component that allows models to weigh the relevance of different parts of the input when producing output. Self-attention computes query-key-value dot products across all positions, enabling each token to 'attend' to every other token. Multi-head attention runs multiple attention functions in parallel. Attention is O(n²) in sequence length, driving context window research.

AI / ML

Foundation Model

A large AI model trained on broad data that can be adapted for many downstream tasks. Foundation models (GPT-4, Claude, Llama 3, Gemini) are pre-trained on internet-scale text/code and can be fine-tuned, prompted, or used via APIs for specific applications. The term emphasizes that one base model serves as the foundation for diverse use cases rather than training task-specific models.