ResearchMarch 24, 2025•Updated March 26, 2025•18 min read
Emergent Tool Use in GPT-4
Systematic analysis of how language models spontaneously learn to use external tools with minimal prompting.
How do language models learn to use tools? In this article, I analyze the surprising ways GPT-4 adapts to new tasks with minimal instruction.
The Experiment
I gave GPT-4 access to a calculator, web search, and code execution tools. With just a few examples, it learned to use them effectively.
Prompt Example
User: What is 17 * 23?
Assistant: [Calculator] 391Key Findings
- GPT-4 generalizes tool use from very few demonstrations
- It can chain tools together for complex tasks
- Failures often reveal gaps in world knowledge, not tool logic
"The most impressive part was how quickly GPT-4 adapted to new tools, even ones it had never seen before."
Priya Nair
AI Researcher
About Zev Uhuru
AI researcher specializing in emergent behaviors and tool use in large language models. PhD in Computer Science from Stanford.
