Sometimes it seems as though each new step towards AI, rather than producing something which everyone agrees is real intelligence, merely reveals wha… - Douglas Hofstadter

No one knows where the borderline between non-intelligent behavior and intelligent
behavior lies; in fact, to suggest that a sharp borderline exists is probably silly. But
essential abilities for intelligence are certainly:
to respond to situations very flexibly;
to take advantage of fortuitous circumstances;
to make sense out of ambiguous or contradictory messages;
to recognize the relative importance of different elements of a
situation;
to find similarities between situations despite differences which may separate them;
to draw distinctions between situations despite similarities may link them;
to synthesize new concepts by taking old them together in new ways; to come up
with ideas which are novel.

It is an inherent property of intelligence that it can jump out of the task which it is performing, and survey what it has done; it is always looking for, and often finding, patterns.

Reality includes creating every real connection and reference.