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Well, I'm not sure that's how I would define 'intelligence'. I don't think that the laptop I am currently writing this message on is intelligent, even though it is capable of calculations that I am not.
But I certainly grant that a non-conscious machine could be very dangerous. That just doesn't strike me as the interesting part of AI hypotheticals.
I'd say that, if your laptop is running Doom with its artificial intelligence runtimes controlling the way an imp moves around on your screen, then it's displaying intelligence. Likewise if it's running a local LLM to produce text based on text-based inputs. I see intelligence as the ability to solve complex problems, such as making brown pixels appear as a demon attempting to murder you or producing text that appears as a conversation partner in response to a prompt. Where exactly that line for "complex" is drawn is admittedly pretty vague and correctly controversial, though.
I think many parts of AI hypotheticals are interesting, including whether or not they're conscious or have agency and whether or not they're dangerous. But in terms of real-world applications of modern and upcoming AI, I think the danger/use part is far more interesting than the consciousness part. I expect that, for the near future, it's highly unlikely that we'll get AI that we can say with any meaningful level of confidence is "conscious" or has subjective experience or whatever, but it's almost certain that we'll get AI that's useful/dangerous (arguably, this has already happened). I think there's a high chance we'll get AI that appears to have agency in the near future as well.
I suppose I grant that there's a relatively 'low' use of the word intelligence that applies to things like the Doom AI. When I talk about the AI in a video game, I'm calling it 'intelligence', and in a sense I mean it.
But I don't see that as intelligence in a 'high' sense, if that makes sense? When I play a video game, the monsters are in some sense 'intelligent', but they are not intelligent in the sense that, for example, would be associated with possessing rights.
Maybe we should distinguish our terminology somewhat - perhaps the Doom demons are intelligent but not sapient? And I previously used the word 'intelligence' synonymously with sapience, rather than with this lower level of simulated agency?
In any case, I think I broadly agree with your conclusion. I think it is extraordinarily unlikely that in the near future we will produce artificial beings that can reasonably be said to be conscious, sapient, or an equivalent. I don't think we're going to produce any artificial people. But we are going to produce, and right now are in fact producing, machines that are capable of complex behaviour, and that these machines offer both potential and risk.
I'd agree with this characterization. I also would say that, personally, I don't associate intelligence with deserving rights. That opens a door that I'd rather keep quite shut. I don't think these terms are completely clear cut, but it seems fair enough to say sapience, sentience, consciousness, ability to suffer, are things id associate with deserving rights.
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