Merriam-Webster Dictionary has the following:

‘a
(1)
: the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations : REASON
also : the skilled use of reason
(2)
: the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (such as tests)
b
: mental acuteness : SHREWDNESS
‘
These are outlines only. the word ‘how’ apparently is missing in paragraph 1 between ‘or’ and ‘to’.
Interesting. I have a few questions:
1. Where does this ‘ability’ come from? How do you know how to confront a ‘new’ problem and solve it?
2. Can a ‘machine’, for example, a so-called ‘AI’ system react and resolve a new problem?

In us, as humans, there is a payback, or deficit, from making a decision, about a given scenario.
These ‘results’ positive, or negative are remembered, and become part of us.
No, not in your ‘gut’, but I do admit to having that sensation, which is common to all os, but the scenario, and it’s outcome, good, bad, or indifferent is held in the subconscious.

In so-called AI, ‘LLM’ ‘Large Language Models’ are used to compare patterns, whether they be of text, or images. No ‘meta’ information regarding how the machine feels about either the images or text is held, unless ‘feeling’ is coded alongside it regarding the HUMAN reaction to it – this is added as ‘slop’ from reports, if any, regarding the informational content.
So the AI system is a huge library of mostly dross, scraped from the web, adorned with the aggregated comments of those ‘good’ folks that reacted to it in the first place.

IOW A Bag of Shit.