New Microsoft.Extensions.AI Libraries Revolutionize .NET AI Development

Microsoft released a preview version of “Microsoft.Extensions.AI” today. This is a set of core.NET tools that developers can use to make AI apps.

Microsoft.Extensions.AI gives AI services, like small and large language models (SLMs and LLMs), embeddings, and middleware, a single API interface. It also has standard ways to do things like caching, telemetry, tool calling, and other common jobs.

Microsoft is giving away reference versions for OpenAI, Azure AI Inference, and Ollama during this preview phase.

Developers of libraries might want to add the Microsoft.Extensions.AI interfaces to their works so that users can quickly add their NuGet package using the abstractions. The new concepts mean that libraries that use AI services don’t have to be tied to a single AI service. This lets end developers choose the service they want to use. These abstractions can help app makers make it easier to integrate them into their apps and make sure that they work with different models and services.

Microsoft thinks that the Microsoft.Extensions.AI library will stay in test until.NET 9 comes out. The Microsoft.Extensions.AI team wants to work with Semantic Kernel to make “Microsoft.Extensions.AI” the base layer of the system.

Microsoft.Extensions.AI is a great addition to the.NET environment that will make it easier for developers to make apps that use AI. Developers are likely to like that it focusses on being flexible and easy to use.