It's quite limited, in frequently making even basic mistakes, but when it works well, it displays real intelligence. It synthesizes new knowledge, as opposed to just retrieving it. When it works well, It's not just a magic trick.
If I generated and printed every possible 300 page book and handed all of those books to you, you’d get a book about the American Revolution where Taylor Swift led the armies of the revolutionaries.
That would not make my system intelligent. I haven’t written anything because I don’t know how to write. I’ve literally just got every possible book and you’ve been given one at random that seems relevant to what you want.
"Wood drastically underestimates the impact of social distinctions predicated upon wealth, especially inherited wealth"? You got that from Vickers' "Work in Essex County," page 98, right? Yeah, I read that too. Were you gonna plagiarize the whole thing for us? Do you have any thoughts of your own on this matter? Or do you, is that your thing, you come into a bar, read some obscure passage and then pretend - you pawn it off as your own, as your own idea just to impress some girls, embarrass my friend?"
So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel.
> It is difficult to describe the exact smell in the Sistine Chapel, but it is likely a combination of various scents, such as incense, stone, and the bodies of the many visitors. The air conditioning system helps to regulate temperature and maintain a comfortable environment, but it also helps to reduce unpleasant odors.
TIL the Sistine Chapel has an air conditioning system
This is not a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters randomly creating the works Shakespeapre scenario. The probability of that is so low that we would never encounter cogent and insightful responses.
But what struck me the other day is a couple of quotes from, of all things, Galaxy Quest which seem particularly apt.
and As amazing as it is, as progressive as it is, it's still a magic trick.