From Nick Bloxham, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK
The belief that ChatGPT shows embryonic general intelligence stems from a particular scientific orthodoxy that equates this with problem solving, akin to the absurd claim that a New Caledonian crow is as intelligent as a 7-year-old child(22 April, p 12).
The supreme example of problem solving with zero intelligence is evolution. ChatGPT doesn’t know it is manipulating semantic units any more than DNA knows it is making a human or a centipede.
The picture is only confused by programs that mimic human activities such as chess. Magnus Carlsen is renowned for the quality of his chess play; no one congratulates him on how well he folds his proteins. If AI threatens civilisation, it will do so the same way as cancer: via unregulated growth, not intelligence.
