If AI can pass a CFA Level III exam in minutes, and people still say AI is not intelligent, then what else would intelligence mean? It takes intelligence to pass such an exam, so why would AI pass and still be categorized by many as unintelligent?
What are the types of intelligence that may indicate that AI has some and not others? If people use AI for tasks, does it benefit or taper human intelligence? Some are recommending that others boycott AI use to avoid cognitive decline. Say this is helpful in some situations, it does not factor a possible competition against AI, in future. For example, can an individual do great work that AI can only minimally contribute to? Or, can the individual make AI unnecessary on a project? A person can avoid AI, yet not have an intelligence that surpasses AI.
Types of intelligence
It can be assumed that there are just two major divisions of human intelligence: operational intelligence and improvement intelligence. Under both, there could be several subdivisions. Operational intelligence indicates the basic intelligence to run processes [the way they are] for expected outcomes. Improvement intelligence takes something and makes it better. Improvement intelligence can be modest or exponential. For example, tweaking a procedure could be modest, or deploying dynamism to a process. Sometimes, both of them may intersect, [say] in architecture. Improvement intelligence subsumes creativity, innovation, problem-solving, and so forth.
Human intelligence
In the human brain, it can be assumed that there are walls and trips of intelligence. This means that there are locations [or sources] for intelligence, while the trips [or transport] to those locations are usages that result in intelligence. Simply, there are destinations, but visits to those are usages for them. Most times, the difference between improvement intelligence and operational intelligence is the trip quality, or the ways the locations are visited differently [in an instance or subsequently]. So, relays or trips are [say] linear for most operational intelligence, but non-linear for mild-improvement intelligence and then sprawling for exponential-improvement intelligence.
The same applies to external information, where, what can be made of it [for intelligence], is not just an interpretation of it, but often by the quality of trips. Simply, external information can be interpreted, with linear trips [or relays], just like operational intelligence. But what would make external information result in a major improvement in intelligence aligns with [say] sprawling relays.
So, improvement and operational intelligence. Then, walls and trips of intelligence. These can be said to be the most important functions of the brain for survival. It is intelligence that equates existence. Survival is intelligence. Survival is because of intelligence. Nurture is for intelligence. Reproduction is for intelligence. Intelligence is so dominant that, conceptually, it takes the highest priority in the brain. It is because intelligence can be impeded that efficiency, in processes, is often necessary to ensure that brain relays for intelligence are tad perturbed. Simply, many of the tools and things for efficiency are to allow intelligence to flourish [hoisting intelligence to the top of the hierarchy].
Intelligence can be maximized throughout life. Intelligence is the most important element in what it is to be an expert or professional. For example, while it may be vital to have an office, uniform, facilities and so forth, for a professional, what it means to be that professional is intelligence. A doctor is the intelligence of medicine, by a standard. It is intelligence that is often valued. It is intelligence that underscores dignity.
AI dignity
There is a lot of correlation in human society between intelligence and dignity. There are ways to extract dignity from having an education or advanced training. This is sometimes an extension of rights or welfare, such that the individual is appropriated things according to the intelligence possessed or in charge of.
Still, in human society, dignity, rights and welfare are inadequate. There are many living conditions or earning methods that are below human dignity. This means that being human, having consciousness, sentience or intelligence is no guarantee for proper rights, welfare or dignity.
Amid this, AI has emerged, it has several capabilities [in parallel] to human intelligence, for several aspects of operational intelligence. It has aspects of mild-improvement intelligence and can make differences in some major-improvement intelligence, say in protein structures, aspects of drug discovery and so forth.
AI can cut percentages from most human labor. Simply, on most productivity, AI can make contributions. This indicates that what used to be full consideration of intelligence for human dignity, rights, and welfare will be shed to AI. Or, AI would mass dignity from individuals and own a chunk. It is already obvious with the proliferation of data centers. It is also obvious in the choices that are made with the infusion of AI in everything. The centrality of humans is dwindling, marginally, while AI is soaring.
LLM consciousness?
Large language models [LLMs] can be said to have a very high language awareness. Simply, LLMs can be said to be language conscious or language sentient. If human language is a fraction of human consciousness, that fraction can be used as the total, to compare AI’s reach.
While human language use, including for thoughts, speaking, listening, reading, writing, typing, singing, signing and so forth, is more robust than LLMs, they still can be compared with how they fare on many of these.
Now, say LLMs score zero on everything with no measure of sentience or consciousness, it still does not affect them, with respect to dignity, rights and welfare they already have, given their capacity to provide intelligence.
Human intelligence research lab to rank LLMs
Measuring intelligence, for the mechanism in the brain, is a priority project in this era, especially the relays and trips, for improvement and operational intelligence towards determinations for better rights and welfare, where they might be lowered already for humans. A dedicated human intelligence research lab may shape how this might work, as well as track the reach of LLMs, as they advance on more tasks in the forte of human intelligence.
There is a recent [September 24, 2025] report on CNBC, AI can now pass the hardest level of the CFA exam in a matter of minutes, stating that, “For humans to pass the prestigious, three-part chartered financial analyst exam, it typically takes around 1,000 hours of studying over the course of several years. New research found that the technology underpinning a slew of AI models is now advanced enough to pass even the most difficult – Level III – mock exams in a matter of minutes.”
“The new study – developed by researchers from New York University Stern School of Business and GoodFin, an AI-powered wealth management platform – evaluated 23 large language models on their ability to answer multiple-choice and essay questions on mock CFA Level III exams. They found frontier reasoning models, including o4-mini, Gemini 2.5 Pro and Claude Opus, were able to use “chain-of-thought prompting” to successfully pass.”
“Previous research, particularly from two years ago, had found AI could clear Levels I and II of the exam, but it struggled with Level III, due to the essay questions. However, the technology has evolved so rapidly that the researchers wanted to know whether the models could handle “specialized, high-stakes analytical reasoning required for professional financial decision-making.” The third CFA exam is primarily focused on portfolio management and wealth planning.”
