  Since the noun phrase `artificial intelligence' (AI) was coined, it has been
debated whether humans are able to create intelligence using technology. We
shed new light on this question from the point of view of themodynamics and
mathematics. First, we define what it is to be an agent (device) that could be
the bearer of AI. Then we show that the mainstream definitions of
`intelligence' proposed by Hutter and others and still accepted by the AI
community are too weak even to capture what is involved when we ascribe
intelligence to an insect. We then summarise the highly useful definition of
basic (arthropod) intelligence proposed by Rodney Brooks, and we identify the
properties that an AI agent would need to possess in order to be the bearer of
intelligence by this definition. Finally, we show that, from the perspective of
the disciplines needed to create such an agent, namely mathematics and physics,
these properties are realisable by neither implicit nor explicit mathematical
design nor by setting up an environment in which an AI could evolve
spontaneously.
