AI unit

ChatGPT suggests this could be "A discrete AI artifact that is a complete, executable intelligence unit — integrating a model at its core plus tool connectors, memory/state, orchestration, governance, and interfaces — that can be versioned, deployed, and updated independently."

AI unit as car engine metaphor

Why not "model"?

I like avoiding model because these days (early 2026) most of these units we interact with are compound systems like AI unit -- GPT-5.

Why not "agent"?

I'm also reticent to call them agents because I believe agents are perhaps a sub-categorization of these AI units. They are, specifically, a more complex compound system of more basic types of AI units. For example, people would call something like Claude Code an agent because it is an agent harness. So, I'd like to reserve agent for more complex compound systems.

If we consider AI unit as car engine metaphor, agents feel like more than just the engine.