Four questions, not one

So what is it?

The first word that comes to mind is intelligence. Once you have said that word, others follow immediately. Does it understand what it is saying? Does it know anything? Is there anything it is like to be it?

These are old questions, and this section is not going to answer them. It can separate them. Being useful, being intelligent, understanding something, and there being someone home are four different claims. Evidence for one does not automatically prove the others.