The Chinese Room Argument, explained briefly

[Oberon]

You are locked in a room full of boxes containing chinese symbols, and rule book in English for manipulating the symbols. You get as input from the outside some Chinese symbols; you look up in the rule book what you're supposed to do with those symbols, and give back some symbols in Chinese.

Unbeknownst to you, the symbols you get are questions, and the symbols you give back are correct answers, in Chinese, to the questions, such that they are indistinguishable from those a Chinese speaker would give.

Assuming you don't understand a word of Chinese, you still pass the Turing test for understanding Chinese; you fool the other person outside into thinking they really are speaking with someone who speaks Chinese. All the same, you don't understand a single word of Chinese.

If you cannot get from the syntax of the computer program to the semantics of understanding Chinese, then neither can any other digital computer, because no computer has something that you don't have.

TL;DR:

Syntax is not semantics. Computer programs are defined entirely syntactically; operations over syntactical elements.
Human intelligence requires more than just a syntax; it requires a semantics.
Therefore, programs which are syntactical, do not have intelligence.

[Tauntshaman]

Well first off the Turing test is no longer THE metric for determining whether some "AI" with quotations marks are indeed intelligent. This is because most if not all modern LLMs can pass it with no problem while it's widely accepted that these LLMs are far from being intelligent.

Secondly your argument can be made to prove that humans are not intelligent too.
Your ear drum get as input from the outside some mechanical waves; your nerves translates these waves into concentration of neurotransmitters like Glutamic acid. Your brain look up in the brain what you're supposed to do with those concentration numbers, and give back some numbers of Glutamic acid concentration. Your nerves then pass these concentrations to your muscles. Your muscles stimulates based on the concentration of neurotransmitters and create mechanical waves, which is a process an average mortal would call "talking".
In this processes your brain is only dealing with different concentrations of neurotransmitters.

Assuming your brain don't understand a word of english, your brain still pass the Turing test for understanding english; your brain fool the other person outside into thinking they really are speaking with someone who speaks english. All the same, your brain don't understand a single word of english.

TL;DR:
just because you can chat with others in english doesn't mean you have intelligence

[DJarJar]

TL;DR:
just because you can chat with others in english doesn't mean you have intelligence

person responding to a banned user over a year later