Process-Constituted Intelligence: A Shared Criterion for Humans and Machines
Intelligence is constituted by \textit{process} (iterative activity through which output emerges), not in the output itself. Generative AI (GenAI) is trained on \textit{traces} (textual and visual residues of human cognitive processes), reproducing samples from a distribution of those traces. Its outputs resemble reasoning, problem-solving, and creativity, yet the activity that produces such outputs in humans remains largely absent. Current GenAI is, therefore, weakly equivalent to the cognition it imitates, matching outputs while process stays absent or opaque. The cognitive sciences have long distinguished between weak and strong equivalence. Here, we define \textit{strong} equivalence ...
| Authors | Michael J. Richardson, Ayeh Alhasan, Cassandra Crone et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.AI |
| Published | 17 August 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 7 September 2026 |
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