PhD-level intelligence or the graduate student from hell

AI companies love to tout that their models are approaching—or have reached—PhD-level intelligence.1 This is blatant nonsensical marketing geared towards an audience that deeply misunderstands what a PhD is and what it takes to get one. Hearing it makes me cringe. PhD-level intelligence is not a thing. I frequently encounter the misconception that people with PhDs are particularly intelligent. I assume the reasoning goes as follows: The PhD is the highest possible educational achievement available, there are not that many people who get one, and it is very competitive to get accepted into a program, so the PhD must be reserved for and an indicator of the most intelligent students. But, a PhD is not an IQ test. You can’t get a PhD by solving some brain teasers. Instead, you have to make it through a long and arduous process of conducting a piece of independent research, writing it up, and defending it before a panel of experts. The most important predictor of how well somebody does in a

AI companies love to tout that their models are approaching—or have reached—PhD-level intelligence.1 This is blatant nonsensical marketing geared towards an audience that deeply misunderstands what a PhD is and what it takes to get one. Hearing it makes me cringe. PhD-level intelligence is not a thing. I frequently encounter the misconception that people with PhDs are particularly intelligent. I assume the reasoning goes as follows: The PhD is the highest possible educational achievement available, there are not that many people who get one, and it is very competitive to get accepted into a pr