Can a computer really be intelligent?

When we call an AI "intelligent," we are referring to its ability to achieve things which humans use intelligence to achieve. Whether or not the computer is "really" intelligent in the same way as humans is beside the point.

For example, humans use their intelligence to be persuasive. If a large language model can produce persuasive arguments¹, it is "intelligent" in the domain of persuasion regardless of whether the internal process it's using to produce those arguments is similar to the human mind. dangerous whether or not that ability comes from “intelligence”. Similarly, something which can reshapethe physical world towards a specific end is also functionally intelligent. AI systems now have many abilities that were once thought to require human intelligence, including playing chess, creating art, and solving scientific problems (like protein folding).