[DouglasKC]

I believe there is (was?) an experiement called the "Turing Test" in which the test of intelligence of a computer is judged on whether or not a human interacting with it can discern whether it's a human or machine by conversing with it. So far nothing has passed the test. I think that eventually we'll come close, but ultimatly fail because I don't believe that it's possible to create something more intelligent than ourselves. The creation can never surpass the creator.

[UCANSEE2]

Skip the conversation above and just go see the movie "A.I."

[Lev]

So far nothing has passed the test.

The article assumes that the machine passes the test:
GEENA: No, I suppose not. I would still behave in the same way, because the artificial neurones would perform the same job as my originals.

So the question is: if a machine simulates humans perfectly can we say it thinks?

[ICU812]

I don't believe that it's possible to create something more intelligent than ourselves.

I think using the word 'intelligence' when talking about computers is a little misleading. The question is not can a computer be more intelligent than its maker but can it simulate intelligence greater than it's maker in some kind of objectively discernible way? In a lot of ways they already are, their beating chess champions, solving math problems much faster than the average human could, performing tasks with a level of precision no human can match etc etc... Their 'brains' have a much faster processing speed than ours can ever have, fill both brains with the same data and they'll still be answering questions before we can. But potentially their 'brains' could hold many times as much data as our's can.

Can machines think? I don't know, in some ways thats a religious question. I do know that in the not very far future it will be impossible to prove that they don't.