Natural, Artificial, and Human Intelligences

TL;DR

This paper explores the nature of intelligence across humans, animals, and artificial systems, questioning whether modern chatbots can be considered truly intelligent by examining psychological, technological, and historical perspectives.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of intelligence in humans, animals, and AI, highlighting the evolving understanding and challenges in defining and achieving artificial intelligence.

Findings

Humans are not uniquely intelligent when considering psychological and technological evidence.

Current chatbots lack perceptual and social awareness but are rapidly advancing.

The role of language and embodiment is crucial in understanding intelligence.

Abstract

Human achievement, whether in culture, science, or technology, is unparalleled in the known existence. This achievement is tied to the enormous communities of knowledge, made possible by language: leaving theological content aside, it is very much true that "in the beginning was the word", and that in Western societies, this became particularly identified with the written word. There lies the challenge regarding modern age chatbots: they can 'do' language apparently as well as ourselves and there is a natural question of whether they can be considered intelligent, in the same way as we are or otherwise. Are humans uniquely intelligent? We consider this question in terms of the psychological literature on intelligence, evidence for intelligence in non-human animals, the role of written language in science and technology, progress with artificial intelligence, the history of intelligence testing (for both humans and machines), and the role of embodiment in intelligence. We think that it is increasingly difficult to consider humans uniquely intelligent. There are current limitations in chatbots, e.g., concerning perceptual and social awareness, but much attention is currently devoted to overcoming such limitations.