Research Community Perspectives on “Intelligence” and Large Language Models

Bertram Højer; Terne Sasha Thorn Jakobsen; Anna Rogers; Stefan Heinrich

doi:10.48550/arXiv.2505.20959

Research Community Perspectives on “Intelligence” and Large Language Models

Bertram Højer
, Terne Sasha Thorn Jakobsen
, Anna Rogers
, Stefan Heinrich

University of Copenhagen

Research output: Conference Article in Proceeding or Book/Report chapter › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Despite the widespread use of “artificial intelligence” (AI) framing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) research, it is not clear what researchers mean by “intelligence”. To that end, we present the results of a survey on the notion of “intelligence” among researchers and its role in the research agenda. The survey elicited complete responses from 303 researchers from a variety of fields including NLP, Machine Learning (ML), Cognitive Science, Linguistics, and Neuroscience. We identify 3 criteria of intelligence that the community agrees on the most: generalization, adaptability, & reasoning. Our results suggests that the perception of the current NLP systems as “intelligent” is a minority position (29%). Furthermore, only 16.2% of the respondents see developing intelligent systems as a research goal, and these respondents are more likely to consider the current systems intelligent.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2025
Place of Publication	Vienna
Publisher	Association for Computational Linguistics
Publication date	27 May 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2505.20959
Publication status	Published - 27 May 2025
Event	Association for Computational Linguistics - Austria, Vienna, Austria Duration: 27 Jul 2025 → 1 Aug 2025 Conference number: 63 https://2025.aclweb.org/ https://aclanthology.org/volumes/2025.acl-long/

Conference

Conference	Association for Computational Linguistics
Number	63
Location	Austria
Country/Territory	Austria
City	Vienna
Period	27/07/2025 → 01/08/2025
Internet address	https://2025.aclweb.org/ https://aclanthology.org/volumes/2025.acl-long/

Series	Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2025

Keywords

intelligence
generalization
adaptability
reasoning
natural language processing

Access to Document

10.48550/arXiv.2505.20959Licence: CC BY

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.20959Licence: CC BY

Cite this

@inproceedings{7b79a87e93e14692bd3933e082c20ecd,

title = "Research Community Perspectives on “Intelligence” and Large Language Models",

abstract = "Despite the widespread use of “artificial intelligence” (AI) framing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) research, it is not clear what researchers mean by “intelligence”. To that end, we present the results of a survey on the notion of “intelligence” among researchers and its role in the research agenda. The survey elicited complete responses from 303 researchers from a variety of fields including NLP, Machine Learning (ML), Cognitive Science, Linguistics, and Neuroscience. We identify 3 criteria of intelligence that the community agrees on the most: generalization, adaptability, \& reasoning. Our results suggests that the perception of the current NLP systems as “intelligent” is a minority position (29\%). Furthermore, only 16.2\% of the respondents see developing intelligent systems as a research goal, and these respondents are more likely to consider the current systems intelligent.",

keywords = "intelligence, generalization, adaptability, reasoning, natural language processing",

author = "Bertram H{\o}jer and Jakobsen, \{Terne Sasha Thorn\} and Anna Rogers and Stefan Heinrich",

year = "2025",

month = may,

day = "27",

doi = "10.48550/arXiv.2505.20959",

language = "English",

series = "Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2025",

publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",

booktitle = "Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2025",

address = "United States",

note = "Association for Computational Linguistics, ACL25 ; Conference date: 27-07-2025 Through 01-08-2025",

url = "https://2025.aclweb.org/, https://aclanthology.org/volumes/2025.acl-long/",

}

Højer, B, Jakobsen, TST, Rogers, A & Heinrich, S 2025, Research Community Perspectives on “Intelligence” and Large Language Models. in Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2025. Association for Computational Linguistics, Vienna, Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2025, Association for Computational Linguistics, Vienna, Austria, 27/07/2025. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2505.20959

Research Community Perspectives on “Intelligence” and Large Language Models. / Højer, Bertram; Jakobsen, Terne Sasha Thorn; Rogers, Anna et al.
Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2025. Vienna: Association for Computational Linguistics, 2025. (Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2025).

Research output: Conference Article in Proceeding or Book/Report chapter › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Research Community Perspectives on “Intelligence” and Large Language Models

AU - Højer, Bertram

AU - Jakobsen, Terne Sasha Thorn

AU - Rogers, Anna

AU - Heinrich, Stefan

N1 - Conference code: 63

PY - 2025/5/27

Y1 - 2025/5/27

N2 - Despite the widespread use of “artificial intelligence” (AI) framing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) research, it is not clear what researchers mean by “intelligence”. To that end, we present the results of a survey on the notion of “intelligence” among researchers and its role in the research agenda. The survey elicited complete responses from 303 researchers from a variety of fields including NLP, Machine Learning (ML), Cognitive Science, Linguistics, and Neuroscience. We identify 3 criteria of intelligence that the community agrees on the most: generalization, adaptability, & reasoning. Our results suggests that the perception of the current NLP systems as “intelligent” is a minority position (29%). Furthermore, only 16.2% of the respondents see developing intelligent systems as a research goal, and these respondents are more likely to consider the current systems intelligent.

AB - Despite the widespread use of “artificial intelligence” (AI) framing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) research, it is not clear what researchers mean by “intelligence”. To that end, we present the results of a survey on the notion of “intelligence” among researchers and its role in the research agenda. The survey elicited complete responses from 303 researchers from a variety of fields including NLP, Machine Learning (ML), Cognitive Science, Linguistics, and Neuroscience. We identify 3 criteria of intelligence that the community agrees on the most: generalization, adaptability, & reasoning. Our results suggests that the perception of the current NLP systems as “intelligent” is a minority position (29%). Furthermore, only 16.2% of the respondents see developing intelligent systems as a research goal, and these respondents are more likely to consider the current systems intelligent.

KW - intelligence

KW - generalization

KW - adaptability

KW - reasoning

KW - natural language processing

U2 - 10.48550/arXiv.2505.20959

DO - 10.48550/arXiv.2505.20959

M3 - Article in proceedings

T3 - Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2025

BT - Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2025

PB - Association for Computational Linguistics

CY - Vienna

T2 - Association for Computational Linguistics

Y2 - 27 July 2025 through 1 August 2025

ER -

Research Community Perspectives on “Intelligence” and Large Language Models

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this