The Basics of GenAIScript
+
Introduction
+
GenAIScript is a framework that empowers teams, including
+non-developers, to create and use AI-enhanced scripts to support their
+workflows. GenAIScript provides support for authoring and debugging
+JavaScript scripts that incorporate calls to foundation models and LLMs 1
+in their execution. GenAIScript is a programming framework that
+allows its users to author AI scripts (which we call a GenAIScript),
+debug those scripts in a development environment that is an extension of
+VS Code, and package those scripts in a command-line interface that can
+be deployed in many contexts.
+
Our VS Code extension supports easy authoring of a GenAIScript by
+writing natural language in markdown syntax plus a small amount of
+stylized JavaScript programming. Our framework allows users to leverage
+multiple LLM models, parameterize the calls to the models, execute and
+debug scripts, trace the construction of the LLM prompts and provide a
+full trace of execution from prompt construction to LLM generation to
+parsing the LLM result. Our framework also supports extracting multiple
+forms of output from LLM generations, including output in files of
+different types, outputs intended as edits to existing files and outputs
+in structured formats, such as JSON.
+
Key terms
+
GenAIScript A stylized JavaScript program that defines the context
+for the LLM call, allows arbitrary JavaScript code execution, packages
+the prompt input for the LLM, calls the LLM, and unpacks that LLM output
+based on the directions given in the prompt.
+
GPVM: A runtime system that given a GenAIScript and an optional
+GPSpec, executes the GenAIScript, which involves integrating the context
+into a prompt, calling the specified LLM, and extracting content from
+the LLM result.
+
VS Code GenAIScript extension An add-in to VS Code that provides
+users with easy methods for creating, editing, running and debugging
+GenAIScript.
+
Foundation models and LLMs While GenAIScript currently supports
+different LLMs, in the future we anticipate that we will incorporate
+additional foundation models beyond large language models.
+
Capabilities
+
System behavior
+
GenAIScript is a general-purpose AI-script authoring framework for
+seamlessly integrating code execution and foundation model/LLM
+invocations. A GenAIScript is a JavaScript program in a stylized format
+that allows users to easily specify the LLM context and prompt, invoked
+a specified model, and parse the resulting output according to user
+specifications. This functionality allows even users who are not
+programmers to inspect model results and double check them for
+correctness.
+
GenAIScript can be written in any IDE but the VS Code GenAIScript add-in
+makes creating, executing and debugging GenAIScript especially easy.
+GenAIScript users can implement tools that generate and edit multiple
+files with a single tool and our integration with VS Code leverages
+existing functionality in for refactoring to allow users to easily see
+the results of the tool execution. The add-in supports creating a new
+GenAIScript, invoking a given GenAIScript, tracing the execution of the GenAIScript in establishing the LLM
+context and final prompt, and unparsing the LLM output into the
+user-specified elements. Examples of all of these capabilities can be
+viewed in the documents in the GenAIScript repository:
+microsoft/GenAIScript: Generative AI Scripting
+(github.com)
+
The goal of GenAIScript is to empower a broad range of potential users
+to innovate with building AI-powered scripts and identify new ways to
+leverage AI for their daily tasks. We expect that professional
+developers, who are familiar with writing and using scripts to enhance
+their productivity will be the early adopters of GenAIScript.
+GenAIScript will give these users benefit because GenAIScript can do
+many things that existing scripts written in traditional scripting
+languages like JavaScript and Python cannot do. While developers can
+leverage other frameworks, such as langchain and Semantic Kernel, that
+integrate calls to LLMs into languages like Python, these
+frameworks require more user effort and have less IDE support than
+GenAIScript. Ultimately, because our goal is to make GenAIScript easy to
+author, modify, debug and run, we anticipate that they will be useful
+far beyond professional developers. A major impact of GenAIScript will
+be to enable non-developers to innovate and build GenAIScripts that
+enhance their productivity. We illustrate this point with examples
+below.
+
Documentation
+
To help users get started with GenAIScript, we include documentation in
+our repository that illustrates in code snippets the contents of several
+different GenAIScripts. The documentation shows both what the example
+GenAIScript looks like as well as what the effect is from the
+GenAIScript acting on a particular input. While these examples are
+intended to explain the technology, they are not intended to be the
+basis for user-written tools.
+
Use cases
+
Intended uses
+
GenAIScript can be used in any context where a command line script
+written in another programming language might be used but the use cases
+are much more ambitious because the LLM can do much more than ordinary
+code. Here are some examples:
+
+-
+
Checking for potential inconsistencies in a collection of
+configuration files or other content. Using the LLM, a GenAIScript
+can inspect configuration files and leverage the LLMโs understanding
+of common configuration errors to detect and report them. Before
+LLMs, professional developers would write tools, such as lint2,
+which are complex programs that detect inconsistencies in the syntax
+of their code files. With GenAIScript, checking tools can be written
+for much richer scenarios (such as checking for inappropriate
+variable names), and by individuals who are not professional
+developers.
+
+-
+
Automating document translation: Given documentation in a
+repository written in one natural language, a GenAIScript can be
+written to translate that documentation into another language. For a
+specific example of why GenAIScript is important for this use,
+consider the task of maintaining the localization of the
+MakeCode3 documentation. MakeCode documentation has nearly 2M
+files, which are typically markdown with a mix of code snippets.
+Many documents are partially translated (at the paragraph level). To check the correctness of
+document translations, there are
+3500 registered volunteer translators for 35+ languages. One cannot
+just apply Bing translate for this use case, as it typically destroys the code
+snippets. With GenAIScript, we can have a script that goes through
+every documentation file, pulls the current localized version and
+assembles a prompt to ask the LLM to fill in the missing
+translations, while leaving the existing ones alone. Because the LLM model we use has already been trained on
+MakeCode examples and documentation it is aware of the syntax.
+
+-
+
Generating executable code from a natural language
+specification. A GPSpec file can be used to specify the task being
+performed and a GenAIScript that specializes in code generation can
+translate the spec into code.
+
+-
+
Creating a short version of a longer white paper by summarizing
+each chapter. LLMs are quite effective at summarizing documents. A
+GenAIScript can be written to take each chapter of a long document
+and summarize it in a section of a shorter document.
+
+-
+
Translating a monolog to a dialog. Given a monolog from a video
+transcript, a GenAIScript can be written to rewrite the monolog into
+a dialog between two individuals (akin to sports announcers talking
+to each other) to make the video more interesting and accessible.
+
+
+
Unintended uses
+
GenAIScript is a general framework for authoring scripts. As a result,
+an adversary can use GenAIScript to author adversarial scripts that
+could be used for malicious purposes. All of the adversarial uses of
+GenAIScript could also be implemented in other LLM language extension
+frameworks such as Sematic Kernel, autogen, and langchain, so the danger
+from unintended uses of GenAIScript stems from possibility that it might
+make it easier to author adversarial scripts. This issue is present in
+any infrastructure that makes programming easier, including languages
+such as PowerShell, JavaScript, and Python, as well as IDEs such as VS
+Code and Visual Studio. While we cannot prevent unintended uses, we will
+encourage users to consider Responsible AI practices when they build
+GenAIScripts. We provide more details about issues related to security and trust in security and trust.
+
Foundation model best practices
+
We strongly encourage GenAIScript users to use foundation models and
+LLMs that support robust Responsible AI mitigations, such as the Azure
+Open AI (AOAI) services. Such services continually update the safety and
+RAI mitigations to track our up-to-date understanding on how to deploy
+and use foundation models most responsibly. Here are resources to help
+understand and use best practices when employing foundations models
+for scripts and applications:
+
+
Limitations
+
GenAIScript is an evolving framework that will improve based on input
+from users. Existing limitations in the framework include integration into only one IDE
+(VS code), and internal support for OpenAI APIs plus a relatively small
+number of other LLMs. We intend to allow users to integrate calls to
+external services (such as RAG) in GenAIScript to provide the LLM with
+more context. We anticipate adding support for more foundation models as the use cases evolve.
+
We also anticipate that the on-ramp to using GenAIScript will evolve. We
+have explored supporting invoking the GenAIScript framework as part of a VS
+Code Copilot Chat experience (hosted in VS Code Insiderโs Edition). We also understand that some developers would prefer to
+implement their GenAIScript using Python instead of JavaScript. We
+anticipate building a Python binding form authoring GenAIScripts in the
+future.
+
Technical limitations, operational factors and ranges
+
GenAIScript does not use any AI model in executing the framework itself.
+Individuals using GenAIScript to author their own AI scripts will be
+subject to the technical limitations, operational factors, and ranges of
+the AI LLM their script uses.
+
+
GenAIScript encourages users to consult the best practices for authoring
+effective prompts for the specific LLM they are invoking in their tool.
+
Learn more about responsible AI
+
Microsoft AI
+principles
+
Microsoft responsible AI
+resources
+
Microsoft Azure Learning courses on responsible
+AI
+
Learn more about the GenAIScript
+
Read more about GenAIScript at our GitHub site, microsoft/GenAIScript: GenAI
+Scripting (github.com)
+
+
Give us feedback on this document: zorn@microsoft.com,
+jhalleux@microsoft.com
+
About this document
+
ยฉย 2024 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This document is
+provided โas-isโ and for informational purposes only. Information and
+views expressed in this document, including URL and other Internet Web
+site references, may change without notice. You bear the risk of using
+it. Some examples are for illustration only and are fictitious. No real
+association is intended or inferred.
+
This document is not intended to be, and should not be construed as
+providing. legal advice. The jurisdiction in which youโre operating may
+have various regulatory or legal requirements that apply to your AI
+system. Consult a legal specialist if you are uncertain about laws or
+regulations that might apply to your system, especially if you think
+those might impact these recommendations. Be aware that not all of these
+recommendations and resources will be appropriate for every scenario,
+and conversely, these recommendations and resources may be insufficient
+for some scenarios.
+
+-
+
Published: March 18, 2024
+
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Last updated: March 18, 2024
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