John searle minds brains and programs

1. Overview

Work in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has produced computer programs that can beat the world chess champion, control autonomous vehicles, and defeat the best human players on the television quiz show Jeopardy.

By 2022 AI had evolved from personal digital assistants (Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant) translating and answering questions to using Large Language Models (LLMs) that could write poems, college level essays, and computer programs, and could pass exams designed to screen the entrants into graduate schools, the study and practice of Law, and other “learned professions”.

John searle minds brains and programs

Our experience shows that playing chess or Jeopardy, writing essays, passing difficult exams, and carrying on a conversation, are activities that require understanding and intelligence. Does computer prowess at conversation, writing essays, and passing difficult examinations then show that computers can understand language and be intelligent?

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