Jason Haley

Ramblings from an Independent Consultant

Semantic Kernel Hello World WebSearchEnginePlugin

A couple of weeks ago I thought I’d written my last of these blogs, mainly due to me getting more in depth with Semantic Kernel. However, after I watched Will Velida’s video Using Bing Search API in the Semantic Kernel SDK … I couldn’t help but wonder what the API calls were behind the scenes. Will does a great job at explaining how to use the plugin and the Bing resource needed to make calls to the search API, so I won’t get into that part of it - I want to focus on the usefulness and API calls made by the plugin.

Posted by Jason on Monday, June 10, 2024

Semantic Kernel Hello World Planners Part 2

Last week in the Semantic Kernel Hello World Planners Part 1 entry, I used the Handlebars planner to implement the sample Hello World functionality and then looked at the token difference between using a saved plan vs. generating a plan. In this entry I use the Function Calling Stepwise Planner to create the sample Hello World functionality and compare it to the implementation in the Semantic Kernel Hello World Plugins Part 3 entry.

Posted by Jason on Monday, May 27, 2024

Semantic Kernel Hello World Planners Part 1

A few weeks ago in the Semantic Kernel Hello World Plugins Part 3 blog entry, I showed how to use OpenAI Function Calling. The last half of that entry was all about how to view the response and request JSON going back and forth to OpenAI, which detailed four API calls. In this entry I look at using the Handlebars Planner to accomplish the same functionality. Then I’ll show the request and response JSON for both using a saved plan as well as having the LLM create a plan and end with a token usage comparison.

Posted by Jason on Sunday, May 19, 2024

Memphis Azure User Group

Last Thursday night I spoke at the Memphis Azure User Group, it was nice to meet some people in person and see how excited others are about finding valuable ways to work GenAI into their applications. I also gave my slide deck a completely new look (Memphis themed via Bing/create): Talk: Getting Started with Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) The presentation pdf can be downloaded here. Since the presentation was hybrid, there were not as many questions as the other two times I’ve given the talk … or that is my guess at the reason why it was so quiet.

Posted by Jason on Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Semantic Kernel Hello World Plugins Part 3

Last week I blogged Part 2 showing the creation of a native function plugin, in this post I want to take that native function a step further and use the OpenAI Function calling. This will allow us to not provide the current date when making the call to get a historic daily fact and have OpenAI call a function to get the current date. I’ve added the HelloWorld.Plugin3.Console project to the GitHub repo for the code in this blog entry.

Posted by Jason on Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Semantic Kernel Hello World Plugins Part 2

Two weeks ago I blogged Part 1, in which I moved the prompt to a prompt template. In this part, I implement a native function that will take in the current date and make the call to the LLM. I’ve put the code for this blog in the HelloWorld.Plugin2.Console project in the same repo as the other SK entries: semantic-kernel-getting-started. Semantic Kernel Plugin: Native Function There is a good Microsoft Learn module: Give your AI agent skills that walks you through the details of what a native function is and how to implement them.

Posted by Jason on Friday, April 26, 2024

My Session at Boston Global Azure Bootcamp

This past weekend was Boston Azure’s Edition of the annual Global Azure Bootcamp. This year we focused on AI and hands-on-labs. The odd thing about when we scheduled the meetup was we had a lot of people sign up for the group just to rsvp - before most of the existing members had gotten around to rsvp’ing. We did not expect that. It is a mystery as how they heard about the event so quick.

Posted by Jason on Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Semantic Kernel Hello World Plugins Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, in my last entry I created a simple Hello World application with Semantic Kernel. Since then, I’ve worked my way through the MS Learning path: APL-2005 Develop AI agents using Azure OpenAI and the Semantic Kernel SDK - which I highly recommend if you are also learning SK. In this entry I’m going to start with the code from the last entry and extract the prompt to a plugin.

Posted by Jason on Thursday, April 11, 2024

Semantic Kernel Hello World

This past Thursday night after the Virtual Boston Azure meetup, Bill Wilder (@codingoutloud) created an AI mini-workshop (hands on) for the attendees that were interested in getting hands on with code using the Azure OpenAI API. This post is me using the same idea but with Semantic Kernel. OpenAI Chat Hello World C# Bill provided the following code for us to get a simple OpenAI chat working: using Azure; using Azure.

Posted by Jason on Saturday, March 30, 2024

Boston Code Camp 36 Sessions

Yesterday was Boston Code Camp 36 hard to believe it has been going on for 20+ years now. For me it is one of those regular events for the Boston tech community that is well worth spending a Saturday attending. It was nice to see a lot of regular faces and meet some new people. Talk: Getting Started with Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) I was surprise the room was full, it was good to see so many developers, students and architects - mostly with .

Posted by Jason on Sunday, March 24, 2024

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ABOUT ME
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Jason is an experienced developer and solutions architect focused on helping companies provide real business value with custom software development using the Microsoft stack of technologies. This includes C#, .NET, Azure and AI services. In 2024, Jason was awarded a Microsoft MVP in AI - highlighting his latest focus on AI and specifically Generative AI technologies in real world business applications. The prior seven years, he was a Microsoft Azure MVP.

Let's work together to find solutions that fit your needs. Reach out today to discuss how I can support your goals—I'm here to help!

Jason Haley MVP