John Searle’s research while affiliated with University of California, Berkeley and other places

The Chinese room argument is a refutation of ‘strong artificial intelligence’ (strong AI), the view that an appropriately programmed digital computer capable of passing the Turing test would thereby have mental states and a mind in the same sense in which human beings have mental states and a mind. Strong AI is distinguished from weak AI, which is the view that the computer is a useful tool in studying the mind, just as it is a useful tool in other disciplines ranging from molecular biology to weather prediction.