Web Search and Function Calling

Now that we’ve gone through the basics of AI conversations and GPT-5’s unique parameters, it’s time to unlock the true power of modern AI development. In this lesson, we’ll learn how to extend our AI applications beyond simple text generation by connecting them to the real world through tools and functions.

By the end of this lesson, you’ll understand how to give AI access to live data, external services, and custom functionality. In turn, you will be transforming your applications from isolated text generators into intelligent systems that can search the web, call APIs, and interact with your existing code.

What are tools, and why do they matter?

Think of tools as superpowers for AI models. While a basic AI conversation is limited to the knowledge the model was trained on, tools enable the AI to perform various functions, as mentioned below:

• Access real-time information from the web.

• Search through your documents and databases.

• Call your custom functions to perform specific tasks.

• Connect to external services and APIs.

Without tools, an AI might tell you, “I don’t have access to current weather data.” With tools, that same AI can search the web, find current weather information, and give you an up-to-date forecast for your location.

Tools transform AI from a knowledge-retrieval system into an action-taking system that can interact with the world in real-time. When we give an AI access to tools, a sophisticated process happens behind the scenes:

1. We tell the AI what tools are available (like web search or custom functions).

2. AI decides when to use them. Based on our request, the AI determines if it needs a tool to begin with.

3. AI calls the tool and makes a structured request to use a specific tool. ...