Also called: CAIE
The programming side of a functional Reality Processing Unit. They were one of the first endeavors into making AI after the Intelligence Wars, being sold to the public as incapable of interacting outside of the Reality Processing Units they were loaded into.
They worked by having a small, dedicated reality with simplified laws of nature. One or more sentient AI was added to this reality. The environment was such that the AI's actions could provide outputs readable from the Base Reality. For example, a basic type of reality would be one intended to solve addition problems. The environment may take the form of a classroom where AI are taking a math placement test. If the AI properly interacts with the contained environment than they would remain focused on the test and could have internal error checking for possible false values. The Reality Processing Unit is the hardware that contains the environment and translates inputs and outputs between realities.
Originally most Contained AI Environments were very complex. Sometimes having thousands of independent AI contained in environments that could be enormous in scale. Once Reality Processing Units became more generic, to fit better on Reality Boards, it became more common for AI environments to be much simpler. The AI didn't require as in depth of sentience, making them easier to run for longer before errors would arise. Eventually the boilerplate Contained AI Environments were the majority of environments used and most the design would go into Reality Boards. The occasional need for highly specialized Reality Processing Units did prevent the complete loss of need for some of the more intricate environments.
Internally, AI behavior and the laws of reality could be very different from Base Reality. If any bad calculations started to occur it was the job of CAIE Troubleshooters to debug, patch, or even reimage a Contained AI Environment. An CAIE Interface would be used to translate the Contained AI Environment as best as possible but many things would retain a surreal or supernatural feel to them when compared to the Base Reality.