This answer depends upon what we mean by “intelligence”. We humans have used our ingenuity to harness the electronic properties of inorganic elements like silicon, to simulate human intelligence. Computer chips, operating on the simple rules of logic that humans implement in the deductive process, are able to execute mathematical algorithms much faster than we can. They can beat us in strategy games like chess and GO, and they can store and recall prodigious amounts of information that exceed the capacity of the human brain. Such outstanding performance suggests to many that these devices display a higher level of intelligence than humans.
Early in the development of such devices, Alan Turing, addressed the question, “Can machines think?” He argued that if a human interrogator at a keyboard asks questions of a human as well as a computer, both hidden from view, and is unable to determine from their answers, which of them is human, then that computer is truly a thinking machine. This has since been referred to as the Turing test for a thinking machine. In some sense, this is Turing’s definition of “intelligence.”
Today, after seventy years of artificial intelligence development, we make a telephone call to a commercial company to deal with an unusual issue like a malfunctioning credit card or a request to check whether an e-transfer to a particular party can be transacted in a different way, and we are meet with a series of robotic responses. These responses are often unhelpful and we are referred to a useless list of FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) none of which matches our issue. If we are lucky enough to connect with a reasonably intelligent human being, we have a much better chance of having our question understood and our problem resolved. The superiority of humans in this instance, is the unique human ability to understand concepts. Artificial intelligence is based on algorithms that are discrete and process information in a linear fashion. Humans, on the other hand, “understand” concepts the same way we understand metaphor–using relationships and connections that is more analogue than digital. For that reason, those who believe in the “soft AI” philosophy (such as Roger Penrose and others) argue that AI will never acquire “real intelligence.” Attributing an IQ to a machine is still outside our scope, because the concept of intelligence is not clearly defined.
