Searle's Opposition against Strong Artificial Intelligence

Machines today can simulate practically anything, whether it is a program to forecast weather days ahead or have human cognitive capacities to understand any given situation and return the optimal solution. Machines are becoming more technological advanced as we use them daily, but can they ever be strongly artificially intelligent? Can a machine have cognitive states, therefore becoming sapient, and can think like humans do? John Searle, a philosophy professor at UC Berkeley, opposes that …

…human cognitive capacities because it simply follows procedures. Searle's challenge to the system is adequate because it doesn't require the person in the experiment to understand the symbol as long as the person can manipulate the symbol according to the book. Therefore, a machine cannot have a strong AI because it does not provide a mental state to understand what it is trying to do but rather it follows what it is programmed to do.