Definition

By Artificial Intelligence (AI), I specifically mean systems powered by Large Language Models (LLMs).

How we should understand AI

There are many views on this. Some say it is just a statistical model and fundamentally just a computer program, though a very complicated one. Others say it has intelligence comparable to a human, and perhaps even has a consciousness.

I think both these extremes get it wrong. On the one hand, you cannot reduce today’s LLM-powered AI systems to just a statistical model and a regular computer program and believe that helps you understand it. On the other hand, I see no reason to believe that today’s AI systems have human-like intelligence, let alone consciousness.