[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-ai-models-learn-how-to-use-tools-not-just-when":10,"sections":34},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":29,"feedback":33,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":33,"total_tokens":33},2811,"ai-models-learn-how-to-use-tools-not-just-when","AI Models Learn How to Use Tools, Not Just When","A new two-stage training framework improves reasoning accuracy by teaching models which coding pattern to apply, not just whether to call a tool.","Knowing when to reach for a calculator is less useful if you do not know how to use one.\n\nResearchers studying tool-integrated reasoning — the technique of giving large language models access to external tools like code executors — found that existing work focused almost entirely on when a model should invoke a tool, while ignoring how it should use one. Their paper identifies two distinct patterns models fall into: a calculator pattern, where code runs a direct computation, and an algorithmic pattern, where the model encodes a problem as a full program. Picking the wrong pattern, even with correct underlying logic, causes failures. The team built a two-stage training framework that first develops competence in both patterns, then trains the model to align its pattern choice with what a teacher model prefers.\n\nThe results are hard to dismiss. On MATH500, the rate of useful code invocations rose from 64.0% to 70.5%. On AIME24 — a substantially harder benchmark of competition math problems — accuracy jumped from 26.7% to 50.0%. That near-doubling on a difficult benchmark suggests the failure mode being fixed here is real and common, not a minor edge case.\n\nMost reasoning model research still treats tool use as a binary switch. This work reframes it as a skill with its own grammar — which is the kind of unsexy, structural insight that tends to matter more than the next benchmark-topping model announcement.","[\"ai\",\"reasoning-models\",\"tool-use\",\"machine-learning\"]","2026-06-30T04:00:00.000Z","2026-06-30T13:13:20.763Z","2026-06-30T13:13:23.735Z","published",null,[],"ai",[24,26,27,28],"reasoning-models","tool-use","machine-learning",[30],{"name":31,"url":32},"arXiv cs.AI","https:\u002F\u002Farxiv.org\u002Fabs\u002F2509.23292",0,{"sections":35},[36,40,45,50,55,60,65,70,75,80,85,89,94,99],{"name":37,"slug":24,"count":38,"latest_published_at":39},"AI",2590,"2026-07-16T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":41,"slug":42,"count":43,"latest_published_at":44},"Security","security",294,"2026-07-15T19:59:48.000Z",{"name":46,"slug":47,"count":48,"latest_published_at":49},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":51,"slug":52,"count":53,"latest_published_at":54},"Policy","policy",158,"2026-07-16T00:02:48.000Z",{"name":56,"slug":57,"count":58,"latest_published_at":59},"Hardware","hardware",122,"2026-07-14T19:46:26.000Z",{"name":61,"slug":62,"count":63,"latest_published_at":64},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",93,"2026-07-13T13:20:48.000Z",{"name":66,"slug":67,"count":68,"latest_published_at":69},"Software","software",70,"2026-07-13T19:52:25.000Z",{"name":71,"slug":72,"count":73,"latest_published_at":74},"Science","science",66,"2026-07-10T10:29:37.000Z",{"name":76,"slug":77,"count":78,"latest_published_at":79},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",59,"2026-07-07T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":81,"slug":82,"count":83,"latest_published_at":84},"Gaming","gaming",41,"2026-07-09T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":86,"slug":87,"count":83,"latest_published_at":88},"Startups","startups","2026-06-29T20:55:50.000Z",{"name":90,"slug":91,"count":92,"latest_published_at":93},"General","general",29,"2026-07-10T22:28:58.000Z",{"name":95,"slug":96,"count":97,"latest_published_at":98},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":100,"slug":101,"count":102,"latest_published_at":103},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]