What is an AI Agent? AutoGPT & BabyAGI explained

Wondering what an AI Agent is? Autonomous AI language models like AutoGPT and BabyAGI can now research and plan tasks after being given a single goal. Confused? We break it all down.

It can be tough to keep up with all of the AI developments on the horizon right now. But, don’t worry; we’re here to break it all down for you. ChatGPT and other AI models disrupt the largest tech companies, like Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, and more. However, as the AI battle rages on, another new wrinkle has emerged, named AI Agents, which were recently used by ChaosGPT.

What is an AI Agent?

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An AI Agent is a single instance of an AI which can be freely used to research and plan out its goals, based on the environment that it is in. For example, if you ask an AI Agent to “End world hunger”, it will begin to research the topic and a potential plan of action by itself.

Newer autonomous generative AI Agents like AutoGPT do require themselves to be based on OpenAI’s API, which you have to pay for.

What is AutoGPT?

AutoGPT is an AI model based on GPT 3.5 and GPT 4 that can automate multi-step queries which are initially fed via the user in a single prompt. The AI Agent then communicates with OpenAI’s APIs in order to generate a response and feed it back to you in relation to the initial query.

You can find AutoGPT over on GitHub, however, it will require some developmental knowledge to set up. However, some clever developers have created a web version of it named AgentGPT which you can test out for yourself.

#AutoGPT is the new disruptive kid on the block- It can apply #ChatGPT's reasoning to broader, more intricate issues requiring planning & multiple steps.

Still early but very impressive with many health and biomedicine applications.

Just tried #AgentGPT and asked it to… pic.twitter.com/ywFhtjxjYD

— Daniel Kraft, MD (@daniel_kraft) April 12, 2023

However, in order to continuously use services like AutoGPT, you will need to be subscribed to OpenAI’s APIs. If left unchecked, a tool like AutoGPT can be quite a costly thing to run, depending on the number of queries that the bot manages to send out.

One of the most famous examples of AutoGPT being used is ChaosGPT, which was running a modified version of the software. However, the uses of AutoGPT and their efficacy remain relatively barebones.

What is BabyAGI?

BabyAGI is a Python-based script that can also run autonomous tasks, in addition to being able to train other AI agents in a simulated environment. However, you can use OpenAI and Pinecone APIs in order to execute tasks. The difference between AutoGPT and BabyAGI is the fact that BabyAGI can in fact also write and execute code, which could make it an incredibly powerful development tool.

It works by generating tasks based on its objective and executing those objectives. BabyAGI then creates new tasks based on the results of the previous task. Considering the developmental potential that BabyAGI holds, it could be an incredibly disruptive tool in the future. Best of all, it’s all open source. However, it also relies on access to Pinecone and Open AI APIs, so be sure to set yourself up with that ahead of making it yourself.

BabyAGI is available on the project’s Github, and you will need some development knowhow in order to get it up and running.