I’ve long thought that embodiment was a critical prerequisite for the development of something that humans would identify as “real” AGI.
Humans are notoriously bad at recognizing intelligence even in animals that are clearly sentient, have language, name their young, and clearly share the realm of thinking creatures with the apes.
This is largely due to the lack of shared experiences that we can easily understand and relate to. Until an intelligence is rooted in the physical realm where we fundamentally exist, we are unlikely to really be able to recognize its existence as truly “intelligent”.
The question you'll need to answer is "why". What does embodiment provide that is recognizable as intelligence.
As for "not able to recognize", it's also worth keeping in mind that LLMs by now regularly pass the Turing test. More, they are more likely to be recognized as humans than humans participating as control.
I’m imagining a timeline where dolphins have accepted long ago that humans are intelligent because of our external manifestations of technology, and consequentially have developed much more sophisticated philosophy than humans based on having to understand paradigms well outside of their personal experiences.
Soon, we will find out through dolphin-Gemma that they have been talking to aliens for centuries, since the aliens tried to talk to us but failed due to our, and their, philosophical myopia… but the dolphins, with their non-circular philosophical understanding recognized alien communications and started the conversation before we finished the pyramids.
Humans are notoriously bad at recognizing intelligence even in animals that are clearly sentient, have language, name their young, and clearly share the realm of thinking creatures with the apes.
This is largely due to the lack of shared experiences that we can easily understand and relate to. Until an intelligence is rooted in the physical realm where we fundamentally exist, we are unlikely to really be able to recognize its existence as truly “intelligent”.