Comment by Teknomadix

Similarly, the standard definitions of intelligence break down when we look at borderline cases like simple algorithms, collective insect behavior, or AI systems.

Viruses particularly exemplify “intelligence” is better understood as a spectrum of information-processing and adaptive behaviors rather than a strict threshold.

The issue seems to me that neither concept is wrong, but that we humans keep trying to impose absolute definitions on phenomena that exist along continua, blurring into one another in ways that resist our neat little categorizations.

I would argue viruses exemplify some of the highest evolved intelligence in our world.