Imagine a person who doesn’t understand Chinese locked in a room, using instructions to respond to written messages. This is similar to how computers “understand” language, according to philosopher John Searle. Despite advancements, AI still relies on pattern matching and canned responses, not true understanding.
Alan Turing’s 1950 test sets the standard: if a judge can’t tell whether they’re conversing with a human or machine, the machine passes. Many chatbots already pass this test, but does it mean they’re intelligent? Recent studies show people can’t reliably distinguish human voices from AI clones, making them hard to detect.
The Chinese Box argument questions whether AI’s abilities are just “good at faking it.” Searle argues that true intelligence requires understanding and comprehension, not just simulating it. Generative AI is simply copy and paste, while agentic AI is just large language models talking to each other.
While some claim to have built Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), the reality is that we’re still far from achieving true intelligence. The Chinese Room test requires an AI to find answers through continuous trial and error, a challenge even current AI systems can’t overcome. We may see AGI in the future, but for now, it’s just a topic of debate.
As AI becomes more integrated into our lives, we need to be cautious not to confuse its abilities with true intelligence. With its limitations, AI can still have significant consequences, like scams and misinformation. Let’s keep an eye on AI’s development and wait for the day when we have a truly intelligent computer.
Source: https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/27/ai_intelligence_opinion