Extending agent capabilities: Tools vs. agents

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to motivate extending the formal definition of "capability" to incorporate the capabilities of external entities, i.e. external capability. The title points to the idea that an external entity may be either a tool or an agent, and only in the latter case does collaboration becomes relevant. This is the starting point for viewing the previously introduced "tool" concept and tool use, as complementary to the agent concept and collaboration respectively. We argue that the tool concept fits between the single agent case and true multi-agent systems where the agents collaborate. According to our view, tool-use is distinguishable both from using internal capabilities ..