Microsoft.Extensions.AI is a set of core .NET libraries developed in collaboration with the .NET ecosystem, including Semantic Kernel. These libraries provide a unified layer of C# abstractions for interacting with AI services, such as small and large language models (SLMs and LLMs) and embeddings.
Core benefits:
- Unified API: Offers a consistent and standard set of APIs and conventions for integrating AI services into .NET applications.
- Flexibility: Allows .NET library authors to use AI services without forcing a specific AI provider, making it parameterizable with any provider.
- Ease of Use: Enables .NET application developers to experiment with different packages using the same underlying abstractions and to utilize a single API throughout their application.
- Componentization: Facilitates the addition of new capabilities and simplifies the componentization and testing of applications.
For more details, see the Introducing Microsoft.Extensions.AI Preview blog post.
| Topic | GitHub Link | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Abstraction implementations | GitHub Link | Samples containing reference implementations of Microsoft.Extensions.AI.Abstractions |
| OpenAI | GitHub Link | Samples showcasing Microsoft.Extensions.AI.OpenAI reference implementation |
| Azure AI Inference | GitHub Link | Samples showcasing Microsoft.Extensions.AI.AzureAIInference reference implementation |
| Ollama | GitHub Link | Samples showcasing Microsoft.Extensions.AI.Ollama reference implementation |