I do not know how "general intelligence" is defined, but there are a set of features we humans have that other animals mostly don't, as per the philosopher Roger Scruton[1], that I am reproducing from memory (errors mine):
1. Animals have desires, but do not make choices
We can choose to do what we do not desire, and choose not to do what we desire. For animals, one does not need to make this distinction to explain their behavior (Occam's razor)--they simply do what they desire.
2. Animals "live in a world of perception" (Schopenhauer)
They only engage with things as they are. They do not reminisce about the past, plan for the future, or fantasize about the impossible. They do not ask "what if?" or "why?". They lack imagination.
3. Animals do not have the higher emotions that require a conceptual repertoire
such as regret, gratitude, shame, pride, guilt, etc.
4. Animals do not form complex relationships with others
Because it requires the higher emotions like gratitude and resentment, and concepts such as rights and responsibilities.
5. Animals do not get art or music
We can pay disinterested attention to a work of art (or nature) for its own sake, taking pleasure from the exercise of our rational faculties thereof.
6. Animals do not laugh
I do not know if the science/philosophy of laughter is settled, but it appears to me to be some kind of phenomenon that depends on civil society.
7. Animals lack language
in the full sense of being able to engage in reason-giving dialogue with others, justifying your actions and explaining your intentions.
Scruton believed that all of the above arise together.
I know this is perhaps a little OT, but I seldom if ever see these issues mentioned in discussions about AGI. Maybe less applicable to super-intelligence, but certainly applicable to the "artificial human" part of the equation.
[1] Philosophy: Principles and Problems. Roger Scruton
