Original title: Natural, Artificial, and Human Intelligences
Emmanuel M. Pothos, Dominic Widdows · October 2026
Human science and culture grew because language lets us share and build knowledge together. Now, computer chatbots can use language just as well as humans do. This paper asks whether human intelligence is truly one of a kind. By looking at animal behavior, artificial intelligence, intelligence tests, and physical bodies, the authors suggest our uniqueness is fading. Chatbots still lack physical perception and social awarenessThe capacity to understand, navigate, and respond appropriately to relationships and interactions between individuals., but researchers are actively trying to solve those gaps.
A baker believes an ornate signature loaf is inimitable because it requires a secret family folding technique. When an automated mixer begins producing loaves with the exact same crust and crumb, the baker must decide if the folding technique was ever truly special. In this paper, humans are like that baker, assuming our use of language proves our minds are completely unique until automated systems produce that same language without having human minds.
For generations, humans assumed that using complex language made our minds one-of-a-kind. As automated systems master language at a human level, that dividing line blurs, forcing society to reconsider what makes our minds distinct from machines and other animals.
The abstract explicitly notes that current chatbots have limitations in perceptual and social awareness. It also does not present a new mathematical model or experimental dataset; it is an interpretive review synthesizing psychology, history, and animal studies rather than an empirical proof of machine parity.
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Natural, Artificial, and Human Intelligences — Emmanuel M. Pothos, Dominic Widdows — Journal of Intelligence — doi:10.3390/jintelligence14100249
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.