Neuro-Symbolic Inversion of Control
Until roughly 2023, many efforts used LLMs by calling OpenAI-compatible APIs from conventional programs. In 2025, the approach known as “AI agents and tools,” in which LLMs call conventional programs, is gaining popularity. Some even call 2025 “the year of agents.”
Explanation
If the conventional approach above represents forward control, the design below, where an AI agent uses tools, can be viewed as a kind of inversion of control.
The AI agent controls the high-level flow, while tools perform specific low-level tasks when called by the agent.
Since conventional code (symbolic computation) and a LLM (a neural network) collaborate, this belongs to neuro-symbolic computation. In particular, the latter arrangement reverses control, so we might call it the “Neuro-Symbolic Inversion of Control” pattern.