Definitions of Intelligence

Forrest Gump:

Intelligent is as intelligent does

Institutional:

IQ, as measured by a standardized test

Gee-wiz:

Able to perform "hard" tasks, for example, chess

F. Scott Fitzgerald:

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

Douglas Adams:

The ability to reconcile contradictory information, such as simultaneously having a stomach-ache and not having a stomach-ache, or seeing a real-estate agent wave her fee [from his Infocom game, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]

Alan Turing:

The ability to fool us into thinking we're conversing (over an electronic link) with another human. The Loebner Prize competition is the first formal instantiation of Turing's test.

Robert Franklin, department head at the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM):

Intelligence is the ability to pick the appropriate behavior for situations encountered in an environment.

Reinforcement learning research:

The ability to choose one's behavior in order to maximize the expectation of positive feedback over the lifetime of the agent.

Donald Sterner:

Intelligence is the ability to apply existing knowledge to solve new problems; the degree of intelligence is measured by the speed with which the agent solves problems. Note that Sterner excludes from the realm of intelligent activity the act of simply accumulating knowledge or the practice of memorizing solutions. His definition describes smart human problem-solving, while ignoring the sort of rote behavior exhibited by insects or current computer programs.

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