I tend to agree that these are "intelligent" tools, and we've been calling various categories of tech intelligent since long before LLMs entered the public cons

I tend to agree that these are "intelligent" tools, and we've been calling various categories of tech intelligent since long before LLMs entered the public consciousness. But when LLMs entered the public consciousness, it was perceived as (and implicitly sold as) a new kind of intelligence. Something fundamentally different than what has come before. And to be fair, there's some truth to that, and the experience of interacting with these tools validates that view. They feel intelligent, and it's easy to anthropomorphize. Blake Lemoine and Kevin Roose come to mind. As a result, I think the broad perception is that this new kind of intelligence is AGI-adjacent, even if it's clearly not yet AGI. But this is a distinction that is likely lost on just about everyone who doesn't work in or deeply understand technology. I think these companies are pretty happy to leave that misconception as-is. They'd rather the public think these things are AGI-like. The reason I'm splitting hairs here is because this all plays into whatever happens next in terms of public policy/regulations, and I think the current level of understanding outside of our bubble is rather poor. And to bring this full circle, that's why I'm defending the use of scare quotes in this piece. I think they highlight something that we haven't figured out how to talk about accurately yet.