Russell's definition of intelligence

The previous article in the sequence is Some problematic definitions of intelligence.

I find great value in Stuart Russell’s definition of intelligence, as it addresses many of the limitations discussed in the previous article. Here is my recollection of his definition:

intelligence the ability of an agent to solve some particular task ¹

An agent is anything that makes a decision: a human, an animal, an algorithm, a system of any kind. This includes complex systems such as nuclear reactor control systems, ant colonies, and school boards. This definition intentionally avoids the following concepts: (a) humanity; (b) consciousness; (c) moral worth; (d) using an ability threshold to draw a sharp boundary; (e) generalization across tasks. All of these concerns can be handled separately; they are already difficult enough without bundling them.

This usage bypasses a lot of traps that mire down other conceptualizations of intelligence. I recommend finding a way to shift conversations towards it wherever possible.

In the next article, I explain why I care about definitions so much.

Later, in the sixth article in the sequence, I return to Criticisms of Russell’s definition.

Endnotes

The next article in the sequence is Why care about definitions?.