Beyond 'Is It Intelligent?': A 5-Layer Framework for Understanding What LLMs Actually Do

The question "do large language models have intelligence?" has become the most polarizing debate in AI. One camp points to emergent reasoning abilities as proof of genuine intelligence. The other dismisses it all as statistical parroting. Both sides talk past each other because they're answering different questions. After a structured multi-perspective analysis—combining empirical evidence, mechanistic interpretability, philosophy of mind, and legal frameworks—a more useful framework emerged. No