Also known as: MCP
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that defines how AI applications connect to external data sources and tools, providing a common interface so that any compliant client can use any compliant server.
MCP addresses an integration explosion. Without a standard, every AI application needs bespoke connectors for every data source, producing an unmanageable matrix of one-off integrations.
As with any protocol granting models access to systems, the security model matters: an MCP server exposes capabilities to whatever the model decides to invoke, so scoping permissions narrowly and auditing tool calls are essential rather than optional.
AI Agent
An AI agent is a system that uses a language model to plan and execute multi-step tasks by calling external tools — searching, running code, querying APIs — and iterating on the results, rather than producing a single response.
Prompt Injection
Prompt injection is an attack in which malicious instructions are embedded in content an AI system processes — a web page, document, or email — causing the model to follow the attacker's instructions instead of the application's.
Large Language Model
A large language model (LLM) is a neural network trained on vast quantities of text to predict likely continuations of a sequence, producing systems capable of generating coherent language, answering questions, and writing code.