Asynchronous LLM Function Calling

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gim, In, Lee, Seung-seob, Zhong, Lin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Gim, In
Lee, Seung-seob
Zhong, Lin
author_facet Gim, In
Lee, Seung-seob
Zhong, Lin
contents Large language models (LLMs) use function calls to interface with external tools and data source. However, the current approach to LLM function calling is inherently synchronous, where each call blocks LLM inference, limiting LLM operation and concurrent function execution. In this work, we propose AsyncLM, a system for asynchronous LLM function calling. AsyncLM improves LLM's operational efficiency by enabling LLMs to generate and execute function calls concurrently. Instead of waiting for each call's completion, AsyncLM introduces an interrupt mechanism to asynchronously notify the LLM in-flight when function calls return. We design an in-context protocol for function calls and interrupts, provide fine-tuning strategy to adapt LLMs to the interrupt semantics, and implement these mechanisms efficiently on LLM inference process. We demonstrate that AsyncLM can reduce end-to-end task completion latency from 1.6x-5.4x compared to synchronous function calling on a set of benchmark tasks in the Berkeley function calling leaderboard (BFCL). Furthermore, we discuss how interrupt mechanisms can be extended to enable novel human-LLM or LLM-LLM interactions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_07017
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Asynchronous LLM Function Calling
Gim, In
Lee, Seung-seob
Zhong, Lin
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Large language models (LLMs) use function calls to interface with external tools and data source. However, the current approach to LLM function calling is inherently synchronous, where each call blocks LLM inference, limiting LLM operation and concurrent function execution. In this work, we propose AsyncLM, a system for asynchronous LLM function calling. AsyncLM improves LLM's operational efficiency by enabling LLMs to generate and execute function calls concurrently. Instead of waiting for each call's completion, AsyncLM introduces an interrupt mechanism to asynchronously notify the LLM in-flight when function calls return. We design an in-context protocol for function calls and interrupts, provide fine-tuning strategy to adapt LLMs to the interrupt semantics, and implement these mechanisms efficiently on LLM inference process. We demonstrate that AsyncLM can reduce end-to-end task completion latency from 1.6x-5.4x compared to synchronous function calling on a set of benchmark tasks in the Berkeley function calling leaderboard (BFCL). Furthermore, we discuss how interrupt mechanisms can be extended to enable novel human-LLM or LLM-LLM interactions.
title Asynchronous LLM Function Calling
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.07017