The human brain is the substrate for human intelligence. By simulating the human brain, artificial intelligence builds computational models that have learning capabilities and perform intelligent tasks approaching the human level. Deep neural networks consist of multiple computation layers to learn representations of data and improve the state-of-the-art in many recognition domains. However, the essence of intelligence commonly represented by both humans and AI is unknown. Here, we show that the nature of intelligence is a series of mathematically functional processes that minimize system entropy by establishing functional relationships between datasets over space and time. Humans and AI have achieved intelligence by implementing these entropy-reducing processes in a reinforced manner that consumes energy. With this hypothesis, we establish mathematical models of language, unconsciousness and consciousness, predicting the evidence to be found by neuroscience and achieved by AI engineering. Furthermore, a conclusion is made that the total entropy of the universe is conservative, and intelligence counters the spontaneous processes to decrease entropy by physically or informationally connecting datasets that originally exist in the universe but are separated across space and time. This essay should be a starting point for a deeper understanding of the universe and us as human beings and for achieving sophisticated AI models that are tantamount to human intelligence or even superior. Furthermore, this essay argues that more advanced intelligence than humans should exist if only it reduces entropy in a more efficient energy-consuming way.

翻译：人类大脑是人类智能的基质。通过模拟人脑，人工智能构建了具有学习能力并执行接近人类水平的智能任务的计算模型。深度神经网络由多个计算层组成，用于学习数据的表示，并在许多识别领域提升了现有技术水平。然而，人类和人工智能共同体现的智能本质仍属未知。在此，我们揭示智能的本质是一系列数学化功能过程，通过建立数据集在空间和时间上的功能关系来最小化系统熵。人类和人工智能通过以消耗能量的强化方式实施这些熵减过程实现了智能。基于这一假说，我们建立了语言、无意识和意识的数学模型，预测了神经科学将发现的证据以及人工智能工程可实现的目标。此外，我们得出结论：宇宙总熵是守恒的，而智能通过物理或信息连接原本存在于宇宙中但跨越时空分离的数据集，对抗自发过程以降低熵。本文应成为深入理解宇宙及人类自身、实现等同于甚至超越人类智能的先进AI模型的起点。更进一步，本文论证：若仅以更高效的能量消耗方式降低熵，则应存在比人类更高级的智能。