Editing Chinese room (section)

=== Strong AI vs. AI research ===
Searle's arguments are not usually considered an issue for AI research. The primary mission of artificial intelligence research is only to create useful systems that act intelligently and it does not matter if the intelligence is "merely" a simulation. AI researchers [[Stuart J. Russell]] and [[Peter Norvig]] wrote in 2021: "We are interested in programs that behave intelligently. Individual aspects of consciousness—awareness, self-awareness, attention—can be programmed and can be part of an intelligent machine. The additional project making a machine conscious in exactly the way humans are is not one that we are equipped to take on."{{sfn|Russell|Norvig|2021|p=986}}

Searle does not disagree that AI research can create machines that are capable of highly intelligent behavior. The Chinese room argument leaves open the possibility that a digital machine could be built that acts more intelligently than a person, but does not have a mind or intentionality in the same way that brains do.

Searle's "strong AI hypothesis" should not be confused with "strong AI" as defined by [[Ray Kurzweil]] and other futurists,{{sfn|Kurzweil|2005|p=260}}{{sfn|Russell|Norvig|2021|p=981}} who use the term to describe machine intelligence that rivals or exceeds human intelligence—that is, [[artificial general intelligence]], [[progress in artificial intelligence|human level AI]] or [[superintelligence]]. Kurzweil is referring primarily to the <em>amount</em> of intelligence displayed by the machine, whereas Searle's argument sets no limit on this. Searle argues that a superintelligent machine would not necessarily have a mind and consciousness.