Calculators don’t do anything with equations. They perform logical operations via substitution in order to determine the numerical value of terms.
But if you really want to go by that logic I agree: if you can represent a real world situation in terms of mathematical terms to be calculated into a final value, then a calculator is competent to navigate that situation.
I agree with that the term “general intelligence” is poorly-defined. My reason for posing a precise challenge is to put a spotlight on this fact.
We want to categorize LLMs as other than us, via this term “general intelligence”, because it is less terrifying than acknowledging that there’s a new intelligence operating next to us. That we have new neighbors, and that we are not keeping up with them.
My overall goal is to foster respect for the severity of our situation, by nullifying this “oh don’t worry it’s not real artificial intelligence”.
As for the calculator-vs-LLM question, I’d say LLMs are more likely to post a threat to human hegemony, because it is easier to reduce the world to a textual narrative than it is to reduce it to a mathematical term to be calculated.
And I agree. For all our sake, we must stop using “yeah but is it a GeNeRaL InTeLliGeNcE” as our excuse for pretending the singularity isn’t happening.