Catherine McCurry

These two papers both examined the question of artificial intelligence. Is it possible for a machine to think? They’re not so much at odds, as asking different questions. What do you mean by intelligence, think, understand? What do you mean by machine?

Turing’s famous criterion for ascribing intelligence to an artificial system is whether or not it could convince a native speaker, through remote, text based questioning, that it was human. Turing’s test would reveal a functional intelligence.

Searle’s claim is that there can be no intelligence without intention. Without the causal elements that cause humans (and other intelligent beings) to think what they think, and do what they do, there is no intelligence. He argues that a program based on formalisms can be designed to pass the Turing test, but this is not a test of true intelligence, as a formal system which knew all the rules of language (placing symbols in a prescribed order, associating symbols in a prompt with correct symbols in a response) could pass the test with no understanding of the content of the conversation.