Does AI understand?
Science & Tech Does AI understand? Illustration by Liz Zonarich/Harvard Staff Sy Boles Harvard Staff Writer July 16, 2025 6 min read It may be getting smarter, but it’s not thinking like humans (yet), say experts Imagine an ant crawling in sand, tracing a path that happens to look like Winston Churchill. Would you say the ant created an image of the former British prime minister? According to the late Harvard philosopher Hilary Putnam most people would say no: The ant would need to know about Churchill, and lines, and sand. The thought experiment has renewed relevance in the age of generative AI. As artificial intelligence firms release ever-more-advanced models that reason, research, create, and analyze, the meanings behind those verbs get slippery fast. What does it really mean to think, to understand, to know? The answer has big implications for how we use AI, and yet those who study intelligence are still reckoning with it. “When we see things...