What is an AI agent?

How do we make artificial intelligence more intelligent? This week, Technology Now dives deep into the world of AI agents and how they interact with large language models. We ask what are some of the current problems with AI, and examine how applying agents can help artificial intelligence to provide better answers to our questions. Jimmy Whitaker, Chief Scientist in the AI Private Cloud Group at HPE, tells us more.

This is Technology Now, a weekly show from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Every week, hosts Michael Bird and Aubrey Lovell look at a story that's been making headlines, take a look at the technology behind it, and explain why it matters to organizations and what can be learnt from it.

Jimmy Whitaker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmymwhitaker/

Sources cited in this week’s episode:
Today I learned: 
https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/04/29/flares-from-magnetized-stars-can-forge-planets-worth-of-gold-other-heavy-elements/
Anirudh Patel et al., 2025, Direct Evidence for r-process Nucleosynthesis in Delayed MeV Emission from the SGR 1806–20 Magnetar Giant Flare, ApJL 984 L29, DOI 10.3847/2041-8213/adc9b0

This week in history:
Strassburg MA. The global eradication of smallpox. Am J Infect Control. 1982 May;10(2):53-9. doi: 10.1016/0196-6553(82)90003-7. PMID: 7044193.
Muyembe JJ, et al, 2024, Ebola Outbreak Response in the DRC with r-VSV-ZEBOV-GP Ring Vaccination, The New England Journal of Medicine, 2024;391:2327-2336, VOL. 391 NO.24, https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1904387
https://www.who.int/health-topics/poliomyelitis#tab=tab_1