What are “agents” ? Instead of duck-testing this, let’s ask what mechanically makes a program an agent ? (rather than a function call with good marketing)

1. What is agency ?#

The Cambridge dictionary says: the ability to take action or to choose what action to take.

2. Where does the agency come from in agentic AI?#

An LLM, on its own, is a function mapping a text to a text. You give it a prompt, it returns one completion, and then it is done. It cannot check the weather. It cannot notice it was wrong and try again. So where does the agency come from?