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I think it's fair to term "intelligence" as "the capability to solve problems" - which lets us speak meaningfully about objects with even a very small modicum of "intelligence" on a certain axis - things can be "smart" in some senses without that generalizing. For instance, I think I can reasonably say "the LRASM is more intelligent than a Harpoon," because the LRASM is better at solving the problem (correctly identifying a target ship) than the Harpoon is.
LLMs certainly can solve problems, and thus while they are not intelligent and self-aware in the way that humans are I think it is fair to call them artificial intelligence. "Artificial" doesn't just mean "constructed," it also suggests a replacement - just like when you get an artificial leg. When a naval aviator launches an LRASM, its judgment replaces his in the final stages of the combat engagement. I ask an LLM to vibe-code for me, it is replacing my judgment. An artificial leg does not need to be a real leg, or as good as a real leg, to be an artificial leg, it needs to serve the same purpose as a leg.
I do agree, though, that it is helpful to say "LLM" in part because there are plenty of artificial intelligence models that are not large language models, and it is helpful to disambiguate.
Depends on how you define "mostly." Possible most people doing 3D printing are hobbyists. But it's being used for stuff that's pretty serious (buildings, guns, boats).
I think the best case scenario is that you could send your LLM product specifications and it would churn out a product for you. I am skeptical that the best unreleased frontier models could do this for something as simple as a microwave right now. But I could see them being capable of it in the future, particularly if you conceptualize the LLM as being used as a go-between or manager, not the actual design model itself. Walk in to your manufacturing complex one evening and say "I need a light attack aircraft, two-seater, range 500nm unrefueled, payload of no less than 2000 pounds, compatible with our preexisting parts and weapons stockpile and standing technical specifications" and then go to sleep, while the LLMs spend all night working on the design. This could work because the LLM is not trying to create the aircraft de novo. Rather it's building the aircraft in a computer design software that knows the parameters of the facility and the "parts list" and the other relevant technical requirements. It is guarded against hallucination because the tools it is using serve as an external source of truth that will validate its designs. Imagine it as the difference between trying to build a house with a set of LEGO bricks and trying to figure out how to build a house from scratch.
I would guess that an LLM could do something like that in, say, Flyout today. Now, there is a long list of reasons why Flyout is not real life, and thus I want to stress I am talking about a best case scenario that I think it plausible enough with enough development that it warrants consideration. I am not necessarily making a firm prediction.
I think this misunderstands how this words. Today, right now, you can use Blender to create a design to 3D print. And today, right now, LLMs can design 3D objects in Blender. So the LLM-to-physical-world pipeline that matters already exists, it just remains to be seen if it can handle anything more complicated than novelty coat hangers and such. I think this ability is actually much more relevant to scaling up manufacturing than robotic humanoids and thus all of the problems we're still having with things like computer vision and mobility are largely irrelevant.
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