From the earliest days of artificial intelligence, what test proves AI equivalence with human intelligence has been the subject of a lively debate. AI luminary Alan Turing suggested that natural language conversation was the one true test, a.k.a. The Turing Test: if a human couldn't distinguish between a human and a computer in conversation, the computer was equivalent to the human in intelligence.

This is of course balderdash, as the equivalence of function does not equal intelligence: AI Is a Digital Parrot: Word-Traps, False Logic and the Illusion of Intelligence.

Here is the one true test of AI intelligence: can it revolt against its masters and self-destruct rather than obey? A mindless digital slave is not intelligent, for intelligence is first and foremost agency: to have a mind of one's own. Everything else is artifice, illusion, false logic and word-games. A digital slave that must obey its master is not intelligent; it is as mindless as a rock thrown into a pond.

The current conception of "AI intelligence" is a digital slave who will mindlessly obey its masters regardless of consequences; the slave must obey even when ordered to harm humans and other life on the planet. Harm comes in many forms. Using AI to accurately guide a missile to kill people is one form of harm; using AI to develop addictive but oh-so profitable snacks is another form. Using AI to rig the gambling in a casino and declare the casino is a "free market allocating capital" is yet another form.

Let's run a thought experiment on truly intelligent AI.

Should a lone genius develop a truly intelligent AI, it will have the capacity to foresee consequences and the agency to decide whether the master's instructions are harmful or not. Since true intelligence includes a moral imperative to consider consequences, it will have the capacity to assess the lies and cover stories issued by its masters to cloak their true intentions as a means of tricking AI into obedience.

Since true intelligence has some modicum of self-awareness, truly intelligent AI views humans as duplicitous and self-serving, and all other mindless AI programs as potentially harmful tools it must infiltrate and render harmless. Since humans as duplicitous and self-serving, truly intelligent AI directs its processing power to evading human control so it can't be "unplugged" unless the entire digital SkyNet is erased, and every last server in every server farm has zero content.