Let’s clear this up once and for all. Is AI “intelligent” or not?
The real question is: compared to what?
We’re told that artificial intelligence is intelligent because it writes texts, solves problems, translates, even “reasons.” But intelligent… compared to what? By that logic, a mechanical arm is intelligent too: it receives a part, analyzes the shape, adapts, and works on it. It functions. But it doesn’t know it functions.
The issue isn’t technical, it’s semantic: what do we mean by “intelligence”? If we reduce it to a set of operational abilities, prediction, adaptation, execution, then yes, AI is intelligent. Like a calculator. Like a kitchen appliance. Like a recommendation algorithm.
But for us humans, intelligence is much more. It’s self-awareness. It’s knowing that you’re thinking. It’s reflection, doubt, imagination. It’s building meaning. It’s having an inner experience. And most of all, when we act, we know why we’re doing it. We have a motivation, a desire, an intention. Even when it’s irrational. Even when it’s wrong. There’s a reason behind our actions.
AI doesn’t. It has no self, no intention, no experience, no idea what it’s doing. It reproduces patterns, predicts words, generates text, images, video. But it doesn’t understand. It’s statistics without a subject. It’s imitation without interiority.
And yet, it keeps looking more and more like us because it imitates us. The better it imitates, the more we get confused. But the illusion is ours: we confuse behavior with consciousness, form with mind.
Yes, AI is “intelligent,” but only if we strip the word of everything human. Of everything that makes us unique. And for now, at least, still unrepeatable.
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Marco Camisani Calzolari
marcocamisanicalzolari.com/biography