Research & Ideas

quirq: A Unit of Work for Intelligence

quirq: a unit of work for intelligence. What it is, what it calculates, how to calculate it, where it applies, and how to adopt it.

AI is metered on one side only. The token counts what the machine consumes; the quirq counts what it delivers: verified, owner-valued work, minted against captured state.

The paper, as a section. This is the web version of quirq: A Unit of Work for Intelligence (XO Labs, 2026). The narrative motivation lives in The Future of Work; this section is the canonical treatment, in the order a newcomer should read it.

Token: the input meter
Compute consumed
Energy and carbon
Inference cost
What the machine drew from the world. Real accounting, wrong side of the ledger for value.
quirq: the output meter
Outcomes verified
Owner-valued (B)
Minted, never reported
What the machine changed in the world, at the value a human set.
divide them → quirqs per dollar (QER) · quirqs per kWh · quirqs per tonne CO₂ · track over time → the AI effectiveness trajectory

1. What is quirq

The definition and the mint, the two-meters argument, why the budget is the denominator, and how it compares to every unit before it.

2. How to calculate it

The mechanics: scoring against captured state, the mint rule, the all-in cost model, and worked arithmetic at every step.

3. Measurement and evidence

QER, quirq velocity, intervention rate, trajectories, the energy bridge, methods, validation, and the claim ledger.

4. Real world use cases

Support, legal, reporting, and code as units of work, and the quarterly dashboard a company reads like a P&L.

5. How to integrate this today

Four habits, the adoption path, the practitioner playbook, and the gaming defenses.

Start at the beginning: what is quirq.