Comparing foundation models for building intelligent AI agents
Foundation models (like Large Language Models or LLMs) form the core reasoning engine of any AI agent system. The model you choose will determine your agent's capabilities, performance, and cost structure. This guide explores the major model providers and helps you choose the right one for your specific needs.
When selecting a foundation model for your AI agent, consider these key factors:
Let's explore the leading model providers and their offerings for AI agent development.
Provider of GPT models with strong reasoning capabilities
OpenAI offers a range of powerful language models through their API, including the GPT series. These models excel at natural language understanding, code generation, and complex reasoning tasks, making them suitable for a wide range of agent applications.
OpenAI models are priced based on token usage (both input and output tokens). GPT-4 models are more expensive but offer higher quality reasoning.
Example rates (subject to change):
import openai
# Initialize the client
client = openai.OpenAI(api_key="your-api-key")
# Create an agent function that can process inputs and generate responses
def agent_process(user_input, context=None):
messages = []
# System message to define agent behavior
messages.append({
"role": "system",
"content": "You are an AI research assistant designed to help with information gathering."
})
# Add conversation context if available
if context:
messages.extend(context)
# Add user input
messages.append({"role": "user", "content": user_input})
# Call the API
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="gpt-4o",
messages=messages,
temperature=0.7
)
return response.choices[0].message.content
# Example usage
result = agent_process("Find recent research papers on climate change mitigation.")
print(result)
To use OpenAI models in your agent application:
Provider of Claude models with strong safety alignment
Anthropic's Claude models are designed with a focus on helpfulness, harmlessness, and honesty. They excel at nuanced reasoning, content generation, and understanding complex instructions, making them excellent for building safe and responsible AI agents.
Claude models are priced based on token usage (both input and output tokens).
Example rates (subject to change):
import anthropic
# Initialize the client
client = anthropic.Anthropic(api_key="your-api-key")
# Create an agent function that can process inputs and generate responses
def agent_process(user_input, conversation_history=None):
# Prepare the messages
messages = []
# Add conversation history if available
if conversation_history:
messages.extend(conversation_history)
# Add the user's new message
messages.append({"role": "user", "content": user_input})
# Call the API
response = client.messages.create(
model="claude-3-opus-20240229",
max_tokens=1000,
messages=messages,
temperature=0.7
)
# Return the response
return response.content[0].text
# Example usage
result = agent_process("Analyze the potential impact of quantum computing on cryptography.")
print(result)
To use Anthropic's Claude models in your agent application:
Provider of efficient models with strong performance
Mistral AI offers high-performance language models that strike a good balance between capabilities and efficiency. Their models work well for a wide range of agent tasks and are available both through their cloud API and for local deployment.
Mistral AI models are priced based on token usage (both input and output tokens).
Example rates (subject to change):
import mistralai
from mistralai.client import MistralClient
from mistralai.models.chat_completion import ChatMessage
# Initialize the client
client = MistralClient(api_key="your-api-key")
# Create an agent function that can process inputs and generate responses
def agent_process(user_input, chat_history=None):
messages = []
# System message to define agent behavior
messages.append(ChatMessage(
role="system",
content="You are an AI assistant that helps users with research and analysis."
))
# Add conversation history if available
if chat_history:
messages.extend(chat_history)
# Add the user's message
messages.append(ChatMessage(role="user", content=user_input))
# Call the API
response = client.chat(
model="mistral-large-latest",
messages=messages,
temperature=0.7,
max_tokens=1000
)
# Return the response
return response.choices[0].message.content
# Example usage
result = agent_process("Explain the concept of transformers in machine learning.")
print(result)
To use Mistral AI models in your agent application:
Additionally, many Mistral models are available for local deployment through frameworks like Ollama.
For greater control over data privacy, reduced latency, or lower costs, you can deploy foundation models locally using tools like Ollama or LM Studio. These solutions allow you to run models directly on your own hardware.
Ollama provides an easy way to run open-weight models locally. It supports various models and offers a simple API compatible with many agent frameworks.
Supported Models: Llama 3, Mistral, Mixtral, Phi-3, and many others
Installation: https://ollama.com
LM Studio offers a graphical interface for downloading, managing, and running language models locally. It includes a built-in chat interface and an API server.
Supported Models: Wide range of GGUF format models
Installation: https://lmstudio.ai
vLLM is an open-source library for fast LLM inference and serving. It's more technical to set up but offers better performance for production deployments.
Supported Models: Llama, Mistral, Vicuna, and other open models
Installation: GitHub - vLLM
import requests
import json
# Function to interact with a locally running Ollama model
def ollama_agent(user_input, model_name="llama3", system_prompt=None):
# Define the API endpoint
url = "http://localhost:11434/api/chat"
# Prepare the messages
messages = []
# Add system prompt if provided
if system_prompt:
messages.append({
"role": "system",
"content": system_prompt
})
# Add user message
messages.append({
"role": "user",
"content": user_input
})
# Prepare the request payload
payload = {
"model": model_name,
"messages": messages,
"stream": False
}
# Make the API request
response = requests.post(url, json=payload)
# Parse and return the response
result = response.json()
return result["message"]["content"]
# Example usage
system_prompt = "You are an AI assistant that helps with coding tasks."
result = ollama_agent("Write a Python function to calculate Fibonacci numbers.",
model_name="llama3",
system_prompt=system_prompt)
print(result)
When choosing a foundation model for your AI agent, it's important to compare different options across key dimensions. The table below summarizes the strengths and considerations for each provider.
Feature | OpenAI (GPT) | Anthropic (Claude) | Mistral AI | Local Models |
---|---|---|---|---|
Reasoning Capability | Excellent | Excellent | Very Good | Good (varies by model) |
Context Window | Up to 128K tokens | Up to 200K tokens | Up to 32K tokens | Varies (8K-128K) |
Speed | Fast | Medium-Fast | Fast | Depends on hardware |
Cost | $$-$$$ | $$-$$$ | $-$$ | $ (compute costs only) |
Data Privacy | API-based | API-based | API & Local options | Full control |
Multimodal | Yes (GPT-4o) | Yes (Claude 3) | Limited | Limited |
Best Use Case | Versatile agents, complex tasks | Thoughtful, nuanced responses | Efficient, cost-effective agents | Data-sensitive applications |
When evaluating models for your agent application, consider these performance factors:
The best model choice depends on your specific requirements:
Start your agent development with a flexible architecture that can switch between different model providers. This approach allows you to: